• Linkedin
  • Twitter
  • Rss

Oil, Gas & Energy Law

Skip navigation

Oil, Gas & Energy Law

Global Energy Law & Regulation Portal

Join OGELFORUM

Oil, Gas & Energy Law

Global Energy Law & Regulation Portal

  • Sign in
  • Subscribe
  • Home
  • Sign in
  • About About
    1. Home
    2. About
    3. About OGEL
    4. About OGEL
    5. Founding Editor T.W. Wälde
    6. T.W. Wälde
    7. Editorial team
    8. Editorial team
    9. Contributing Authors
    10. Contributing Authors
    11. Subscriptions
    12. Subscriptions
  • Journal Journal
    1. Home
    2. Journal
    3. Browse Issues
    4. Browse
    5. Articles by Category
    6. By Category
    7. Articles by Author
    8. By Author
    9. Advance publication
    10. Advance publication
    11. Specials
    12. Specials
    13. Search
    14. Search
    15. Book reviews
    16. Reviews
  • Legal & Regulatory docs. L & R docs
    1. Home
    2. Legal & Regulatory docs.
    3. L&R by Country
    4. L&R by Country
    5. L&R by Category
    6. L&R by Category
    7. L&R recent additions
    8. L&R recent additions
    9. Search
    10. Search
  • OGELFORUM OGELFORUM
    1. Home
    2. OGELFORUM
    3. About OGELFORUM
    4. About OGELFORUM
    5. Browse archive
    6. Browse by date / topic
    7. Search
    8. Search
    9. Join
    10. Join
  • News & Events Events
    1. Home
    2. News & Events
    3. News
    4. News
    5. Events
    6. Events
  • OGEL Studies OGEL Studies
    1. Home
    2. OGEL Studies
    3. About OGEL Studies
    4. About OGEL Studies
  • Subscribe
Home > Legal & Regulatory docs.

Gran Colombia Gold Corp v The Republic of Colombia - ICSID Case No. ARB/18/23 - Decision on the Bifurcated Jurisdictional Issue - 23 November 2020

  • Sign in to download document
Country
  • Canada
  • Colombia
Year

2020

Summary

Reproduced from www.worldbank.org/icsid with permission of ICSID.

I. INTRODUCTION AND PARTIES

1. This case concerns a dispute submitted to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ("ICSID" or the "Centre") on the basis of the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the Republic of Colombia signed on 21 November 2008 and which entered into force on 15 August 2011 (the "FTA" or the "Treaty"), and the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States, which entered into force on 14 October 1966 (the "ICSID Convention").

2. The claimant is Gran Colombia Gold Corp. ("GCG" or "Claimant"), a company incorporated under the laws of British Columbia, Canada.

3. The respondent is the Republic of Colombia ("Colombia" or "Respondent").

4. The Claimant and the Respondent are collectively referred to as the "Parties." The Parties' representatives and their addresses are listed above on page (i).

5. This dispute relates to Colombia's measures and omissions which have allegedly negatively impacted the Claimant's investments in the Colombian gold and silver mining sectors.

6. The Claimant alleges that Colombia has breached its obligations under (i) Article 811 of the Treaty by means of the indirect expropriation of its investments; (ii) Article 805 of the Treaty and customary international law concerning the standard of full protection and security; and (iii) Article 805 of the Treaty concerning the fair and equitable treatment standard. The Claimant submits that it is entitled to receive compensation for damage caused as a result of the Respondent's violations of the Treaty.

7. The Respondent alleges that the Tribunal does not have jurisdiction over the Claimant's claims. Among other jurisdictional objections, the Respondent claims that Colombia has effectively denied the benefits of the FTA to the Claimant pursuant to Article 814(2) of the Treaty (the "DoB Objection"). The Claimant acknowledges that Colombia purported to deny such benefits, by letter of 31 May 2018, but contends that this was improper and without effect. Additionally, the Claimant submits an ancillary claim under ICSID Arbitration Rule 40, alleging that Colombia has breached Article 814(2) of the FTA by means of its unfounded denial of benefits to GCG. The Respondent argues that the Tribunal should reject the Claimant's claim, on the basis that the requirements of Rule 40 are not met.

8. This Decision sets out the Tribunal's ruling on the Respondent's DoB Objection and upon the admissibility of the Claimant's ancillary claim.

...

VII. DECISION

157. For the reasons set forth above, the Tribunal decides as follows:

(1) the Respondent's request to dismiss the Claimant's claims, on the basis that the Respondent validly denied the benefits of Chapter Eight of the FTA to Claimant pursuant to Article 814(2) of the FTA, is denied;

(2) the Claimant's request to dismiss the Respondent's objection to jurisdiction on the basis of Article 814(2) of the FTA is granted;

(3) the Respondent's request to dismiss the Claimant's new claim for breach of Article 814(2) of the FTA, on the grounds that it does not meet the requirements for an ancillary claim under Arbitration Rule 40, is denied;

(4) the Claimant's request for a declaration that Respondent breached Article 814(2) through its purporting to deny benefits is denied as premature, pending further briefing from the Parties regarding the availability of relief for such a claim; and

(5) the Tribunal reserves decision on the Parties' respective requests for costs, for determination in conjunction with any subsequent such requests at the close of this proceeding.

[Signed]

Professor Bernard Hanotiau
Professor Brigitte Stern
Ms. Jean E. Kalicki

To download this document you need to be a subscriber

Sign in

Forgot password?

Sign in

Subscribe

Fill in the registration form and answer a few simple questions to receive a quote.

Subscribe now

Documents missing? Documents to share? Let us know!

If you know of documents which are currently missing from our Legal & Regulatory database do let us know. You can send them directly to us for inclusion in the database, anonymously or otherwise.
Learn more here

Call for contributions

OGEL Call for Papers: COVID-19 and the Energy Transition

Dr. Theophilus Acheampong and Professor Tina Soliman Hunter

  • Dr. Theophilus Acheampong
  • Prof. Tina Hunter

OGEL Call for Papers: Law and Policy for Gas Flaring in a Low-carbon Economy

Dr. Tade Oyewunmi and Mohamed Rali Badissy

  • Dr. Tade Oyewunmi
  • Mohamed Rali Badissy

OGEL Call for Papers: The Circular Economy and the Energy Transition

Dr. Maria R. Mazzanti and Giacomo Luciani

OGEL Call for Papers

OGEL Call for Papers: The Hydrogen Economy

Dr. C. Kelly, Dr. M. Wüstenberg, Dr. S.L. Penttinen, Prof. K. Talus

  • Dr. Cameron Kelly
  • Dr. Moritz Wüstenberg
  • Dr. Sirja-Leena Penttinen
  • Prof. Kim Talus

OGEL Call for Papers: Review of the Energy Sector in Ghana

Victoria Ayensu

  • Victoria Ayensu

OGEL Call for Papers: Special Issue on Energy Transitions 2020

Nana Asare Obeng-Darko

  • Nana Asare Obeng-Darko
  • More
  • Contribute

Advance publication

Good Oil, Clean Waters? Ghana's Oil Decade and Environmental Protection

16 Dec 2020

A.B. Opoku Acquah

  • A.B. Opoku Acquah

The Hydrogen Hope? Challenges and Opportunities for an Australian Hydrogen Industry

15 Dec 2020

M. Taylor, T. Soliman Hunter

  • M. Taylor
  • T. Soliman Hunter

Taxonomy Regulation, Principle of Technological Neutrality and Delegated Acts - Does the Draft Screening Regulation Comply with EU Law Requirements?

14 Dec 2020

K. Talus

  • K. Talus
  • More
  • Contribute

Stay connected

Sign up for our email alerts.

  • Issues
  • Advance publication
  • News
  • Linkedin
  • Twitter
  • RSS

Join the debate

Want to join OGELFORUM, our unique platform for oil, gas and energy issues?

Simply fill in the registration form to start your trial membership.

Download the app

  1. App store
  2. Google play

The Oil, Gas & Energy Law Intelligence (OGEL, ISSN 1875-418X) Journal and OGELFORUM listserv focus on recent developments in the area of oil, gas, energy law, regulation, treaties, judicial and arbitral cases, voluntary guidelines, tax and contracting, including the oil, gas, energy geopolitics. Read our Terms & Conditions here, and our Privacy Policy here.

About OGEL

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Contribute
  • Subscriptions
  • Contact
  • Help

Other publications

  • Transnational Dispute Management (TDM)

© 2004 - 2021. Published by MARIS.

  • Home
  • Contribute
  • Subscriptions
  • Contact
  • Help