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Investment Awards vs Sovereign Immunity: Navigating the Enforcement Maze
By Cara North, Counsel, Ashurst
The intersection of foreign State immunity and the enforcement of international arbitral awards has been a hotly contested issues in recent years. First the question was whether a State has waived immunity from court processes concerning recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards by ratifying the 1965 Convention of Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID Convention) – to which the answer has been yes in Australia and the England and Wales (among other jurisdictions). More recently, the question has been whether a State’s ratification of the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention) constitutes an implicit waiver of sovereign immunity, to which the High Court of Australia most recently held no.
In CCDM Holdings, LLC v The Republic of India [2026] HCA 9, the High Court of Australia unanimously held that ratification of the New York Convention does not, of itself, waive foreign State immunity under the Foreign States Immunities Act 1985 (Cth). The decision aligns Australia with the current position in the United States, Canada, and England and Wales, reinforcing an emerging common law consensus in that regard.
Courtroom Attendance as a Forum Conveniens Factor in Hamilton v Barrow
This post is written by Timon Milan Solár, Doctoral researcher, Faculty of Law, Trnava University, Slovakia.
In October 2025, the High Court of England and Wales (King’s Bench Division) handed down its judgment in Hamilton v Barrow [2025] EWHC 2593 (KB). The case concerned a failed unregulated investment scheme that collapsed in 2017, leaving investors without the possibility of recovering their investments, which ranged from £2,930 to £410,969. At first glance, the decision discusses important procedural questions, including abuse of process and champerty. However, on closer inspection, it also raises an interesting issue of English private international law that has gone overlooked. Can courtroom attendance be a factor in the forum conveniens test?
Greenpeace Anti-SLAPP Suit Blocked by International Antisuit Injunction
This post was written by Hannah Buxbaum, Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law. The post is cross-posted from the Transnational Litigation Blog with kind permission.
In 2019, Energy Transfer, the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline, sued Greenpeace International, a Dutch foundation, in North Dakota state court. Last year, Greenpeace responded with an anti-SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) lawsuit against Energy Transfer in Dutch court. In the latest twist in this lengthy dispute, the North Dakota Supreme Court issued an antisuit injunction last week blocking (partially) that anti-SLAPP suit.
The injunction is unusual in two respects. First, it does not actually bar Greenpeace from pursuing the Dutch action; rather, it purports to limit the issues that Greenpeace can raise in that litigation. Second, it was entered after judgment had already been reached in the North Dakota lawsuit. Read more
News
New Publication: Second Edition of the Elgar’s Research Handbook on EU PIL
While much of Europe slows down for August, there is still some fresh academic news to share: the publication of the second edition of the *Research Handbook on EU Private International Law*, edited by Youseph Farah, of the University of East Anglia and Elisabetta Bergamini, of the University of Udine, and published by Edward Elgar Publishing as part of the *Research Handbooks in European Law* series.
Thoroughly revised and updated, the new edition brings together civil-law and common-law perspectives to examine some of the most important questions and continuing challenges in EU private international law. Alongside the traditional fields of jurisdiction, contractual and non-contractual obligations, the Handbook addresses significant developments in family law, parental responsibility and cross-border succession.
CfP: 3rd International Seminar “The Challenges of Private International Law in Contemporary Society” – Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 4-6 November 2026
Call for Papers: 3rd International Seminar “The Challenges of Private International Law in Contemporary Society” – Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 4-6 November 2026
This Call for Papers has been kindly shared with us by Inez Lopes / University of Brasilia (UnB) and Fabricio B. Pasquot Polido / University of Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Following the previous editions hosted by the University of Brasilia in 2019 and 2024, the Third Seminar “The Challenges of Private International Law in Contemporary Society”, will be held from 4 to 6 November 2026 at the Faculty of Law of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brasil. The theme of the 2026 edition is:
“Jurisdiction and Transnational Access to Justice between New Technologies and ‘The Human Side of Artificial Intelligence’” Read more
AMEDIP: Annual seminar to take place from 15 to 16 October 2026 (in Spanish)
The Mexican Academy of Private International and Comparative Law (AMEDIP) will be holding its XLIX Seminar entitled “Towards a new codification of Private International Law in Mexico” (Hacia una nueva codificación del Derecho Internacional Privado en México) from 15 to 16 October 2026. The venue of the seminar will be the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (Mérida, Mexico).
This edition of the seminar will primarily focus on the draft bill on Private International Law for the state of Yucatán, an initiative presented by AMEDIP to the authorities of that state. This draft breaks from previous practice, according to which state PIL rules are contained in civil codes, by suggesting the adoption of a standalone Act (available here). Read more