ICSID Award: Recalcitrant Sovereign Defaults
In Tidewater Investment SRL v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the United States District Courtfor the District of Columbia analyzed jurisdictional, service of process and other procedural issues in order to grant the plaintiff a default judgment in its effort to collect on an arbitration award.
Its December 17, 2018 decision explains in great detail the enforcement mechanism under the International Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes of Mar. 18, 1965, 17 U.S.T. 1270, 330 U.N.T.S. 3, 1, and 2 U.S.C. § 1650a(a). Under the statute, the Federal Arbitration Act does not apply to the ICSID framework to which the United States is a signatory. Section 1650 provides exclusive jurisdiction to the federal district courts.
Among other issues, the court examined in detail the plaintiffs' efforts to serve process under the Hague Convention on Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters of Nov. 15, 1965, 20 U.S.T. 361, 658 U.N.T.S. 163, and the failure of the defendant's Central Authority to serve the summons, complaint, and accompanying initiating paper on Venezuela. Before reaching the substantive issues, the court also assured itself of personal and FSIA subject-matter jurisdiction. -- Clemens Kochinke, partner, Berliner Corcoran & Rowe LLP, Washington, DC.
Tue, / Embassy Law Link