Credibility International Releases a Supplement to the Second Edition of its Study of Damages in Investor-State Cases

November 17, 2021 – Credibility International is pleased to release a supplement to the Second Edition of its Study of Damages in Investor-State Cases which updates the analyses to include cases with a finding of no jurisdiction.

The first edition of this study, published in January 2014, focused on arbitrations handled by the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”), a member of the World Bank Group. The study was based on 99 merit awards issued and publicly available as of June 30, 2013.

The second edition of the study, published in January 2021, was more comprehensive and analyzed all investor-state cases, primarily investment treaty cases and a number of contract cases, based on 241 publicly available awards as of March 31, 2020. This edition analyzed additional arbitrations under ICSID rules, as well as arbitrations under UNCITRAL, SCC, PCA, ICC, LCIA, and CRCICA rules.

We are pleased to release a supplement to the second edition which considers cases with a finding of no jurisdiction. This supplement was prepared based on feedback received from the readers and users of the study.

This supplement includes an additional 87 awards issued from 1981 through March 31, 2020, for a total data set of 328 awards. The awards included in the study represent the entire population of awards Credibility was able to identify that were both public and final (not subject to an ongoing annulment proceeding). Among other things, the study contains a case-by-case listing of damages claimed and awarded, including analysis of:

  • Case activity levels over time
  • Tendencies of the most active arbitrators
  • Rankings of law firms based on various scoring criteria
  • Impact of damages claimed, jurisdictional findings and case duration on costs
  • Relationship between amounts spent and case outcome
  • Discussion of notable issues and trends across the cases evaluated

Key findings include:

  • Publicly reported damages awarded totaled almost $71.9 billion, on claims of over $322 billion, with approximately $103 billion of the claims resulting in a finding of no jurisdiction
  • The respondent won in approximately 71% of the reviewed cases, either through awards of no jurisdiction, no liability or awards with less than 20% of the claimed amount awarded
  • Only 8 arbitrators have issued five or more no jurisdiction rulings
  • There are 14 law firms with ten or more awards and 8 law firms with five or more no jurisdiction awards

The preparation of this supplement was led by Tim Hart, Credibility’s founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Rebecca Vélez, a Director in Credibility’s international arbitration practice. Mr. Hart and Ms. Vélez have decades of experience serving as damages experts in international arbitrations with particularly deep expertise in investor-state cases that typically involve arbitrations between foreign investors and sovereign states under investment treaties.

Mr. Hart said, “We are pleased to supplement our study which was already the most comprehensive study of damages in investor-state cases ever prepared. We hope the users find the additional analyses including no jurisdiction awards valuable.” Ms. Vélez added, “We are pleased that the readers have found our studies useful and are happy to provide this supplement with additional analyses in response to their feedback. Future editions of the study will consider all cases, including those with a finding of no jurisdiction. We welcome additional commentary from our audience.”

Credibility thanks Transnational Dispute Management, who also kindly published the earlier editions of our study, for publishing this supplement to the second edition.

Please click here to download the most current version of the study.