| Abstrakt: |
This article reviews the recent Singapore decision Government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic v Sanum Investments Ltd [2015] SGHC 15, in which the Singapore High Court upheld Laos's challenge to an investor-state arbitral tribunal's decision affirming (in part) its jurisdiction to determine an investor's complaint under the bilateral investment treaty between Laos and the People's Republic of China. The decision is of interest to Australian observers for two reasons. First, it highlights an open, and potentially likely, avenue of appeal from the pending award on jurisdiction in the plain-packaging arbitration between Philip Morris Asia Ltd and Australia (which was also heard by an ad hoc tribunal seated in Singapore). Secondly, the decision highlights key limitations of "first-generation" China BITs (including the 1988 China- Australia BIT), which the investor-state arbitration provisions of the recently concluded China-Australia Free Trade Agreement have very substantially relaxed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
