International Investment Arbitration

In the last decade, international investment law and arbitration have grown exponentially, as a result of the growth in foreign direct investment in the world and investors' increasing reliance on investment treaties to bring arbitration proceedings against host States. It is a fast evolving field of law and dispute resolution which presents numerous difficult issues and can only be handled effectively with adequate specialized knowledge.

As one of the three core practices of the firm, investment arbitration is a field in which we possess outstanding expertise and experience. We have handled or are presently handling more than thirty trade and investment disputes, including some of the most prominent ones. Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler has constantly been ranked among the top investment arbitrators worldwide for several years.

Most investment arbitrations nowadays are brought on the basis of bilateral or multilateral treaties (BITs, NAFTA, the Energy Charter Treaty, etc.) and are conducted under the ICSID Convention, UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, or less frequently also under the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, ICC and LCIA arbitration rules. We have experience in dealing with disputes under all these regimes in areas such as oil, energy, water or mining concessions, major construction and infrastructure projects, international trade in goods or international corporate and financial transactions.

The firm's focus on acting mainly as arbitrators constitutes an additional guarantee of independence, impartiality and specialization.

Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler and Laurent Lévy frequently serve as presiding arbitrators, and have developed particular expertise in acting in such capacity. Our expertise and experience also allows us to provide advice on complex foreign and public international law issues as well as to act as counsel in carefully selected international arbitrations.