ICSID

On October 9, the Dutch and Nigerian subsidiaries of Italian Eni have filed a request for arbitration at ICSID. The dispute revolves around Shell and Eni’s 2011 purchase of the Oil Prospecting Licence (“OPL 245”) from the company Malabu Oil and Gas Limited (“Malabu”) for USD $1.3 Billion.

There are many great things to say about the volume including the discussion about Africanization of international investment law and finding Africa's voice in it. Much of what one would have expected to see about Africa and ICSID is in there.

The conclusion of the AfCFTA comes in the wake of global trade facing a lot of uncertainty, with more countries becoming more protectionist and the global world trade order facing collapse due to rising tensions. Despite all this, Africa’s regional integration agenda remains at the core. The Protocol on Investments is meant to be continental wide project to protect and promote investments in Africa. The ultimate goal for the AU’s regional integration objectives should be to have one investment framework to regulate the whole continent.

Reforming domestic law is critical to ensuring countries capture the benefits of their natural resources wealth. In addition, it is increasingly being recognized in investment treaty reform processes as well as in investor-state dispute settlement proceedings that investor compliance with domestic law is a prerequisite to entertaining investor claims against states.