Provisional Measures in Icsid Proceedings Focusing on Energy Related Disputes
Aslıhan ERBAŞI
Provisional measures are very significant tools not only in national, also in international arbitration. They enable security for parties against any injustice in the course of a pending arbitration and therefore provide a successful outcome of the proceedings. Provisional measures include a variety of measures which range from freezing of assets, posting securities, preservation of status quo, etc. The purpose of this paper in general is to try to answer the question whether there are common grounds relied on by International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunals to recommend parties provisional measures and in particular whether we can talk about any kind of classification for provisional measures regarding claimants’ requests by giving examples of energy related cases. In order to examine these issues the power of an ICSID tribunal to recommend provisional measures, the benefits and the pre-requisites of these measures will be addressed.
ICSID, Provisional Measures, Energy Investment, Energy Related Disputes.
İhtiyati Tedbirler sadece iç hukukumuzda değil, aynı zamanda uluslararası tahkimde de başvurulan etkin bir araçtır. Tahkime taraf olanlar taraflar için tahkim yargılaması süresince ortaya çıkabilecek haksızlıklara karşı garanti sağlamasının yanı sıra, yargılamanın başarılı sonuçlanmasının da destekleyicisidir. İhtiyati tedbirler malvarlığının dondurulmasından, güvenlik sağlamaya, hâlihazır durumun korunması ve benzeri kadar muhtelif tedbirler içermektedir. Bu çalışmanın genel olarak amacı taraflara ihtiyati tedbirler önermesi açısından ICSID – Uluslararası Yatırım Anlaşmazlıkları Çözüm Merkezi’ne itimadın mantıklı temelleri olup olmadığı ve özelde enerji yatırımı uyuşmazlıklarından örnekler vererek davacıların talepleri ile ilgili olarak ihtiyati tedbirlerin bir sınıflandırılmasından söz edilip edilemeyeceğidir. Bu konuların analizi çerçevesinde, ihtiyati tedbir öneren bir ICSID hakem heyetinin yetkileri, bu tedbirlerin yararları ve ön şartlarına da değinilecektir.
ICSID, İhtiyati Tedbirler, Enerji Yatırımı, Enerji Uyuşmazlıkları.
1. INTRODUCTION
Provisional measures are common in international arbitration. Arbitral tribunals recommend them as a matter of urgency to provide a certain status quo and protection for the interests of the parties during the arbitral proceedings are still going on, since parties may suffer from many damages till the tribunal reaches its final award, for example the right or property subject to dispute could be transferred to a third party or lose its edge, the evidences in relation to the dispute could get lost or one of the parties act may cause a harm on other’s continuing business, etc.
Thus, the purpose of provisional measures are as explained by SCHREUER contributing to a successful judgement of the tribunal by “securing discovery of evidence, preserving the parties’ rights, preventing self-help, safeguarding the awards, eventual implementation and generally keeping the peace”.1
ICSID tribunals are also familiar with this incident due to various requests for provisional measures in recent years. After the amendments in 2006, (to) ICSID’s rules included revisions regarding to provisional measures, the relief mechanism of ICSID became much more likely for parties to obtain them in a timely and effective way.2 However the ICSID Convention and Rules regarding investor-state arbitration requires a clear and solid statement of the parties addressing their consent in order to issue a provisional recommendation.
