Germany’s unusual proposals to disqualify the Tribunal in the Vattenfall arbitration
Published: 24 November 2020 Author: Sebastián Mantilla Blanco
In Germany, no discussion about international investment protection escapes the case of Vattenfall v. Federal Republic of Germany. On 14 May 2012, Swedish investor Vattenfall AB and four other companies filed a request for arbitration against Germany with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) under Article 26 of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). The claimants contended that Germany’s Thirteenth Act Amending the Atomic Energy Act of 31 July 2011 was in breach of investment protection standards set forth by the ECT. The Act accelerated the phase-out of the peaceful use of nuclear energy on German soil in response to the tsunami of March 2011 and the resulting collapse of several reactors at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. In particular, the Act set out fixed dates for the closing of German nuclear power plants, which meant that the electricity output allowances previously allocated to individual plants could not be spent prior to the established shut down deadlines. Vattenfall also challenged the Act before the German Federal Constitutional Court, but it was the arbitration under the auspices of ICSID that attracted widespread media attention because of the more than 6 billion euros of damages, including interest, claimed in these proceedings. (more…)