Sixth Annual Investment Treaty Arbitration Conference – March 27, 2012

Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Avenue, NW Washington DC 20036

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Program

NAFTA, CAFTA and Beyond? Investment Protection in the Americas.

The 2012 Washington, DC Juris Conference is dedicated to the question of investment protection in the Americas. Inspired by CAFTA, it will engage the ongoing debate whether there is a need for mechanisms for early disposition of investor-state disputes. It will revisit whether recent NAFTA and ICSID arbitral decisions have created a clear divide between trade, commercial and investment disputes. Panelists will debate whether the authoritative interpretation of treatment standards in the context of NAFTA could be a tool to be emulated more broadly in investment protection agreements. After discussing these key features of the nearly two decades of multilateral free trade agreements in the Americas, the conference will ask: what next and set the stage for what investment law practitioners can expect in the next decade.

This conference continues our tradition of focusing on four topical and pressing issues – by establishing a dialogue between some of the brightest new stars in the field and some of its most seasoned practitioners. Eight up-and-comers are preparing papers on four of the most controversial and important issues in international investment law today. On the 27 March 2012, our young authors will pair up to defend their positions before a panel of arbitrators, arbitration specialists and experts in international investment law. The discussion and debate that will follow is sure to be of tremendous value to the international business lawyer, litigation specialist or trade and investment law policy expert.

Co-Chairs

Todd Weiler is an investment treaty counsel and arbitrator and noted expert on NAFTA Chapter 11. He is the co-founder of Investmentclaims.com and the publisher of NAFTAClaims.com.

Ian A. Laird is Counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Crowell & Moring. His practice is focused in the field of international investment law and arbitration. He is the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Investmentclaims.com.

Frédéric G. Sourgens practices international arbitration in Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy’s Washington, D.C. office. He has worked as counsel in ICSID, UNCITRAL, ICC and LCIA arbitrations where he represents both states and investors in international investment disputes. He is an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center and publishes regularly on questions of public international law, international investment law and international arbitration.

Borzu Sabahi is an Associate in the International Arbitration group of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle’s Washington, D.C. office. Dr. Sabahi’s experience includes serving as counsel and expert in cases brought under a number of bilateral investment treaties, NAFTA Chapter 11, and DR-CAFTA Chapter 10 and under the rules of UNCITRAL, ICC, ICDR and the LCIA. He is an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center where he co-teaches a seminar on investor-state dispute resolution.

Faculty

Alexander Bělohlávek is Founder and Senior Partner of The Bělohlávek Law Offices in Prague. He is a Member of the International Court of Arbitration at the ICC in Paris as well as a Member of the ICC Commission on International Arbitration and a Member of the National Committee of the ICC in the Czech Republic. He has acted as arbitrator or counsel in more than 170 international arbitrations and is listed as arbitrator with the international arbitral centers of several economic chambers in Central Europe. He has published numerous books and articles on arbitration and business law.

Andrea Bjorklund is a Professor at the University of California (Davis) School of Law.  Since January 2012 she is a Visiting Professor at McGill University School of Law which has been funded through the L. Yves Fortier Chair in International Commercial Law and Arbitration. She is an expert in international arbitration and litigation as well as international trade and international investment.

Devin Bray is completing a shared Clerkship position with Dr. Todd Weiler and Robert Weiler in the areas of international arbitration law and Canadian criminal law. He is also a Legal Research Associate with Juris Publishing.

Heather Bray holds a Clerkship Placement with Dr. Todd Weiler in the area of international arbitration law, with specific emphasis on international investment law, and Robert Weiler in the area of Canadian criminal law. She is also a Legal Research Associate with Juris Publishing.

Hon. Charles N. Brower is an arbitrator and member of 20 Essex Street Chambers. His long career in the law has combined extensive practice at the bar with distinguished public service, both national and international, concentrating in the fields of public international law and international dispute resolution. He was a co-founder of White & Case’s Washington, DC office where his practice came to be comprised almost exclusively of substantial international arbitrations. Since 1983 he has served continuously as a Judge of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague. Judge Brower has served as a member of the Panels of Conciliators and Arbitrators of the ICSID. As counsel or arbitrator he has handled cases on all six continents, principally under the rules of the ICC, UNCITRAL, the LCIA, the AAA, the UNCC, ICSID, SCC, ARIAS and LMAA. These cases have involved a wide variety of commercial disputes as well as issues of public international law, including ones arising under both bilateral and multilateral investment treaties (such as NAFTA and the Energy Charter Treaty).

Hugh Carlson is an associate at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy’s Washington, D.C. He practices in the area of international arbitration and litigation. He was previously a member of the international arbitration practice group in the London office of K & L Gates. He has represented clients in ICSID arbitration, and has also assisted clients in international commercial arbitration before the ICC.

Marinn Carlson is a Partner in Sidley Austin’s Washington, D.C. office. She focuses her practice in international dispute settle, with an emphasis on trade policy and investment disputes, including investor-state arbitration and WTO disputes. Ms. Carlson has represented foreign investors as well as respondent governments in ICSID arbitration under investment treaties and trade agreements, including NAFTA. She counsels clients in sectors ranging from financial services to infrastructure development on the implications of international trade and investment rules for their global operations.

Philippe Charest-Beaudry is a lawyer with Fasken Martineau in Montreal. He practices primarily in the areas of commercial litigation, international dispute resolution and arbitration, alternative dispute resolution, securities litigation and class actions.

Mark A. Clodfelter is a Partner in Foley Hoag’s Washington, D.C. office. He has more than twenty-five years of private and public practice experience involving investor-State, State-to-State and commercial disputes before numerous international arbitration fora. Mr. Clodfelter served for seven years as the U.S. State Department’s Assistant Legal Adviser for International Claims and Investment disputes and, as a member of the Senior Executive Service, led a large staff of attorneys in the representation of the United States in international arbitration proceedings, including investor claims under Chapter 11 of NAFTA, in which he had an unblemished record of success.

John Crook teaches international arbitration at George Washington University Law School. He is a frequent consultant to counsel in ICSID and other international proceedings, has served as an arbitrator under NAFTA, and was a Commissioner on the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission. Mr. Crook served for nearly three decades in the U.S. State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser. He was the second United States Agent at the Iran-US Claims Tribunal in The Hague and was involved in creating the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva.

Claudia Frutos-Peterson is a senior consultant at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle with their International Arbitration group. She was formerly counsel at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). At ICSID, she served as Secretary of Tribunals in numerous arbitral proceedings brought under the ICSID Convention and the ICSID Additional Facility Mechanism.

Alvaro Galindo serves as International Counsel with Dechert in Washington, D.C. He advises on complex international arbitration matters, particularly those involving South American jurisdictions. Mr. Galindo’s practice focuses on the representation of sovereign states. Prior to joining Dechert, her served as the Director of the International Affairs and Arbitration Unit for the Republic of Ecuador’s Attorney General Office.

Alex de Gramont is a litigation Partner and a member of Weil, Gotshal & Manges international arbitration practice in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He has represented clients in a wide variety of international arbitration matters. In addition to commercial arbitration expertise, he has extensive experience in handling investor-state arbitration cases arising from bilateral investment treaties (BITs), multilateral investment treaties (including NAFTA, CAFTA-DR, and the Energy Charter Treaty), and other international investment laws.

David Gantz is a Professor of Law at the University of Arizona, Rogers College of Law and the Director of the school’s International Trade Law Program. Among the courses he teaches are international trade law and NAFTA and Other Trade Agreements.

Matthew Hodgson is an associate in the international arbitration group at Allen & Overy in their Prague office where he is responsible for their arbitration practice in the CEE region. He has acted both for States and investors in investment treaty arbitrations and has also advised States on the negotiation and drafting of investment treaties.

Justin M. Jacinto is a member of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle’s International Arbitration Group. His practice focuses on investment treaty arbitration, international commercial arbitration, and public international law disputes. Mr. Jacinto also has experience with project finance and development matters. His experience includes disputes under numerous bilateral investment treaties as well as the Energy Charter Treaty, and across a wide range of sectors, including financial services, oil and gas, mining, electricity and transport.

Mark Kantor is an independent arbitrator and mediator. He teaches courses in International business Transactions and in International Arbitration as an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. Kantor was formerly a partner with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in their Corporate and Project Finance Groups. His recent arbitration and mediation engagements include disputes in the energy, telecommunications, semiconductors, political risk insurance, water rights, finance and banking.

Andrea J. Menaker is a Partner in White & Case’s Washington, D.C. office. She serves as counsel in complex international arbitration cases involving contentious political issues. Ms. Menaker has extensive experience in matters involving treaty-based claims, international investment protections, public international law, sovereign immunity, and the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. Prior to joining White & Case, Ms. Menaker was Chief of the NAFTA Arbitration division for the U.S. State Department where she represented the United States in investor-State arbitrations under the investment chapter of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Andrew D. Mitchell is a Professor at Melbourne Law School at The University of Melbourne. In 2007 following a nomination by the Australian government, the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body added him to the Indicative List of Governmental and Non-Government Panelists to hear WTO disputes. Professor Mitchell acts as a consultant to the private sector and governmental and non-governmental organizations. He has previously been affiliated with the IMF, the OECD, Davis Polk & Wardwell and Allens Arthur Robinson.

Mark H. O’Donoghue is a Partner in Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle’s New York office. He concentrates on corporate projects in Latin America, particularly in the oil and gas, energy and chemicals sectors. Mr. O’Donoghue has experience in project finance and energy infrastructure projects, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, privatizations, cross-border commercial contracts, and international litigation. He has worked on cross-border investment projects and international disputes.

Hugo Perezcano (Luncheon Speaker) is an attorney and professor of law who specializes in international arbitration, international trade regulation and international law. He worked for the Mexican Ministry of Economy for nearly 20 years. Mr. Perezcano headed Mexico’s Trade Remedy Authority from January 2007 through October 2011.He was General counsel for International Trade Negotiations and lead a team of lawyers responsible for providing legal advice to the government on international trade negotiations and foreign trade and investment matters. Mr. Perezcano was lead counsel for Mexico in State-State dispute settlement proceedings initiated under the WTO and NAFTA, as well as in disputes brought by investors under the NAFTA and bilateral investment agreements.

Joseph Profaizer is a Partner at Paul Hastings’ Washington, D.C. office. He maintains a litigation and arbitration practice that focuses on complex international disputes. Mr. Profaizer represents public and private corporations as well as foreign sovereigns and their instrumentalities in a wide range of complex multi-jurisdictional disputes, including insurance, investment, commercial, construction, energy, employment, e-commerce, pharmaceutical, securities, and technology disputes. He has successfully represented clients in more than 50 arbitrations under the rules of the ICC, the AAA/ICDR, the LCIA, JAMS and UNCITRAL.

Jose Antonio Rivas is a foreign attorney at Arnold and Porter in their Washington, D.C. office. He concentrates his practice in international investment arbitration. Mr. Rivas is the former Foreign Investment Director of the Ministry of Trade of Colombia where he conducted a program to strengthen the State’s readiness in case of investor-State arbitration and headed the drafting and updating of the Colombian International Investment Agreement (IIA) Model. Based on this Model, he successfully concluded more than twelve IIA negotiations with States from Latin America, North America, Europe and Asia which included bilateral investment treaties and investment chapters of free trade agreements (FTAs).

Ashley R. Riveira is an associate in Crowell & Moring’s International Dispute Resolution Group and focuses her practice on international arbitration and litigation.

Anthea Roberts is a Lecturer at the London School of Economics. For the academic year 2011-2012 she is a Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Her field of expertise is public international law with a particular focus on international dispute resolution, investment treaty law, international law before national courts and the sources of international law.

Christopher M. Ryan is a Partner in the International Arbitration Group at Shearman & Sterling. He is based in their Washington, D.C. office and has extensive experience in international arbitration and litigation, and has represented private and governmental clients before international arbitral institutions., NAFTA Chapter 19 dispute resolution panels, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body, and U.S. federal courts.

Marco E. Schnabl is a Partner in the international arbitration and litigation groups of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, based in the New York City office. He has appeared for claimants and respondents in proc eedings before the leading international arbitral institutions including several involving investment treaty arbitrations.

Stephen M. Schwebel is a former judge and was the president of the International Court of Justice from 1981 until 2000. He currently is chairman of the seven-member Court of Arbitration between Pakistan and India constituted to adjudge their dispute over Indus Waters. Judge Schwebel is a member of ICSID’s panels of arbitrators, of the ICDR’s neutrals panel, and of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. He serves as president of the World Bank’s administrative tribunal, and was president of the administrative tribunal of the International Monetary Fund from 1993 until 2010.

Natalí Sequeira is counsel at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). She has handled more than twenty arbitration and annulment proceedings, including the first ICSID case registered under the US-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Before joining ICSID she was part of the international arbitration team of White & Case in Washington, D.C.. She has also worked for KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young in the Latin American region.

Matthew D. Slater is a Partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. Mr. Slater’s practice focuses on international arbitration and litigation involving sovereigns. He is a member of the ICC Task Force on Arbitration Involving States or State Entities, and participates in the ALI Project on The U.S. Law of International Commercial Arbitration.

Don Wallace, Jr.is the Chairman of the International Law Institute and Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. He is also counsel at the firm of Winston & Strawn.

Schedule

8:30 – 9:00 Registration
Coffee and Tea upon Arrival
9:00 – 9:15 Opening Remarks by Conference Co-Chairs
Ian A. Laird, Todd Weiler, Borzu Sabahi and Frédéric Sourgens
9:15-10:45 – Procedural Devices for Early Resolution – Success or Failure?
Moderator: Marco Schnabl
Authors: Heather Bray, Devin Bray
Panel: Prof. John Crook, Natali Sequeira, Alex de Gramont, Claudia Frutos-Peterson, Mark Clodfelter
This panel addresses the CAFTA rules regarding early resolution of investment claims. It will draw on the lessons from the analogous ICSID Arbitration Rule 41(5). One author will argue that early case resolution is a good idea — and should potentially be expanded to include early determinations in favor of the claimant. The other author will argue that early case resolution has been a disaster because key factual issues could not be developed in the cases which granted it.
10:45-11:00 Coffee/ Tea Break
11:00-12:30 – Should there be an Americas Investment Court?
Moderator: Professor Bělohlávek
Authors: Ashley Riveira , Hugh Carlson
Panel: Mark H. O’Donoghue, David Gantz, Marinn Carlson, Michael Nolan, Judge Charles N. Brower
There have been various efforts over the past fifty years to create a multilateral agreement of investment obligations, with one of the advantages being a single, international court for the resolution of investment claims. One of the positive results of these efforts has been the creation of ICSID. A major benefit of a single court would be the ability to appoint a top level group of arbitrators who are viewed as being independent from either investors or states. Our authors and panel will engage in a discussion about the problems with the current approach to arbitrator appointment and whether a more court focused model, based in the Americas, could provide a greater level of legitimacy to investor-state arbitration in the region.
12:30-13:45 Lunch
Speaker: Hugo Perezcano Diaz -Former Head of the International Trade Practices Unit (UPCI), Mexico Ministry of the Economy
13:45-15:15 – Has Authoritative Interpretation Perverted the Treatment Standard in NAFTA?
Moderator: Joseph Profaizer
Author: Philippe Charest-Beaudry
Panel: Andrea Bjorklund, Chris Ryan, Judge Stephen Schwebel, Prof. Don Wallace
This panel addresses the effect of authoritative interpretation by the treaty parties on the treatment standard in NAFTA. The discussion will include both the result of the interpretation reached by the NAFTA Free Trade Commission and the broader importance of authoritative interpretation in the context of investor-state arbitration. One author will support that authoritative interpretation in the NAFTA context was a success and a model to be followed in other cases. The other author will argue that the NAFTA approach was a failure and evidences that any authoritative interpretation approach in investment protection treaties must fail because of the inherent bias of the treaty parties.
15:15- 15:30 Coffee/ Tea Break
15:30- 17:00 – Investment, Trade, Health & Environment. Is NAFTA/ CAFTA More Than A Trade Agreement?
Moderator: Matthew Slater
Authors: Justin Jacinto, Matthew Hodgson
Panel: Andrea Menaker, Prof. Anthea Roberts, Mark Kantor, Prof. Andrew D. Mitchell
This panel will discuss the relationship between health and environmental regulations on the one hand and investment law on the other. Key among the topics of discussion will be the recent Philip Morris arbitrations, but the focus will further broaden to other notable environmental decisions reached by NAFTA tribunals.
17:00- 18:00 Cocktail Reception

Earn 7 hours NYS CLE credit hours (transitional and non-transitional) in the Areas of Professional Practice. (see our website sp2018fvxafwx.wpengine.com for full information)

This course has been approved by the Supreme Court of Ohio Commission on Continuing Legal Education for 6.00 total CLE hour(s) instruction.

Seminar Location

Renaissance Mayflower Hotel
1127 Connecticut Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036
Tel: 202-347-3000 or 1-800-228-7697 Fax: 202-776-9182
Website

Accommodations

Renaissance Mayflower Hotel

Rooms have been blocked for the night of March 26 and March 27, 2012 at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel at the rate of $319.00 per room per night plus applicable taxes and fees.

Reservations must be received by February 27, 2012 to receive the preferred conference rate

Hotel Reservations Telephone: 1-800-468-3571

*Refer to Juris Conferences Room Block March 26-27, 2012.

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