Systemic Reflections on Argentina's Non-Compliance with ICSID Arbitral Awards: A New Role of the Annulment Committee at Enforcement?
Argentina’s non-compliance with arbitral awards has brought to the fore a question concerning compliance problems under the ICSID system. Argentina’s ignorance of its ICSID obligations might potentially undermine ICSID arbitration as an efficient mechanism for the resolution of investment dispute. In this paper, drawing from recent decisions on Argentina’s requests for stays of the award’s enforcement in annulment proceedings, the author considers that the annulment committees can be expected to play a more active role to facilitate a better compliance at the post-award enforcement stage. That is, in the face of persistent non-compliance, the annulment committees should take into account the possible inducement effect when they decide whether there has been appropriate assurance of compliance or decide what should be done so as to secure the compliance in their decisions concerning the stays. This should have important implications for the overall ICSID enforcement system in the future.
THE APPLICATION OF THE MOST FAVORED NATION CLAUSE TO THE PROCEDURAL PROVISIONS OF BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATIES: POSSIBILITIES FOR ESTABLISHING ICSID JURISDICTION FOR RESOLVING INVESTMENT DISPUTES
This article explores problems related to establishing the ICSID jurisdiction to the BITs dispute settlement provisions by application of the MFN clause. Being that the application of the clause asks for very extensive interpretation of the BIT which contains this clause, the practice of ICSID tribunals in this field has been very much debated in professional and academic circles. Not only has it raised concerns about stability, predictability and legal certainty in international investment law but, more importantly, about its further development in respect of arbitrators’ powers. The article analyzes three representative cases in which ICSID tribunals made decisions on jurisdiction based on the usage of the MFN clause: Maffezini, Plama and Salini. On the basis of this analysis, certain guidelines are proposed that might be applied in future disputes brought before ICSID tribunals. These guidelines are in compliance with modern tendencies in international scene, which should be considered as the indicators of the direction for further development of this particular area of law. Key words :  MFN clause, investment disputes, ICSID jurisdiction.
SCIENCE AND EMPIRICISM IN PILE FOUNDATION DESIGN
Scientific approaches to pile design have advanced enormously in recent decades and yet, still, the most fundamental aspect of pile design—that of estimating the axial capacity—relies heavily upon ...