ECJ considers whether investor-State arbitration under intra-EU BITs is compatible with EU law

Volterra Fietta Client Alert
12 March 2018

On Tuesday (6 March 2018), the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) gave judgment in Slovak Republic v Achmea BV, C-284/16, EU:C:2018:158.  The case concerned a request for a preliminary ruling from the German Federal Court of Justice regarding the interpretation of Articles 18, 267 and 344 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (“TFEU”).  In particular, the case considered whether investor-state arbitration provisions contained in intra-EU bilateral investment treaties (“BITs”) are compatible with EU law.

In its judgment, the CJEU considered inter alia the nature and characteristics of EU law, whether an arbitral tribunal established pursuant to an intra-EU BIT is situated within the system of the EU and whether an arbitral award made by such a tribunal is subject to review by a court of an EU Member State.

The full English-language text of the judgment is available here.  Other EU language versions of the judgment can be found here.