Se protéger contre les requêtes d’arbitrage investisseurs-États face à la crise du COVID-19 : Un appel à l’action destiné aux gouvernements

The briefing warns that emergency COVID-19 measures—such as lockdowns, nationalization of health services, and export bans—risk triggering a wave of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) claims under over 3,000 investment treaties. It highlights the unpredictability of arbitration tribunals and the high cost of defense, which can average 8 million USD per case. Using historical examples like Argentina's 2001 crisis, the document illustrates how such claims can result in billions of dollars in awards, potentially undermining national health budgets and IMF rescue packages. The authors call for a coordinated global response via the UN, UNCTAD, or UNCITRAL to suspend arbitration for COVID-19 measures or issue joint interpretations of the 'state of necessity' defense. As an interim measure, it suggests that states may unilaterally withdraw their consent to arbitration.

• Emergency COVID-19 measures, including lockdowns and the protection of essential supplies, create an unprecedented risk of investment arbitrations under more than 3,000 existing investment treaties.
• Governments have implemented diverse emergency measures that may be contested by foreign investors, such as the provisional nationalization of private hospitals in Spain and Ireland, the use of compulsory licenses for patented medicines in Canada, Ecuador, and Germany, and export bans on medical supplies and food in countries like India, Russia, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
• The 'state of necessity' defense in international law is difficult to implement because it requires the state to prove the measure was the 'only way' to protect an essential interest against a grave and imminent peril, a threshold that was not met in the Unión Fenosa v. Egypt case.
• Past crises demonstrate the severe financial impact of ISDS; for example, following its 2001 economic collapse, Argentina faced over 50 ISDS cases with final awards totaling more than 2 billion USD.
• Defending ISDS claims is resource-intensive, with an OECD study estimating the average cost of defense at 8 million USD per case, while specific examples include the Philippines spending 58 million USD and Australia spending 28 million USD on a single issue.
• Large arbitration awards can jeopardize national budgets and international financial support; a 2 billion USD award against Egypt represented 12% of its 2018/19 health and education budget, and a 6 billion USD award against Pakistan occurred just as the IMF provided a 6 billion USD bailout.
• The document proposes that governments coordinate a response through the UN, UNCTAD, UNCITRAL, or the World Health Assembly to either jointly suspend ISDS for COVID-19 measures or issue a joint interpretation that such measures are justified by a state of necessity.
• As a temporary measure, states may notify treaty partners of their 'withdrawal of consent' to ISDS, arguing that the offer to arbitrate is only irrevocable once an investor has filed a claim.

APA

Bernasconi-Osterwalder, N., Brewin, S., & Maina, N. (2020). Se protéger contre les requêtes d’arbitrage investisseurs-États face à la crise du COVID-19 : Un appel à l’action destiné aux gouvernements. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/investor-state-claims-covid-19-fr.pdf

Chicago

Bernasconi-Osterwalder, Nathalie, Sarah Brewin, and Nyaguthii Maina. Se protéger contre les requêtes d’arbitrage investisseurs-États face à la crise du COVID-19 : Un appel à l’action destiné aux gouvernements. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2020. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/investor-state-claims-covid-19-fr.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bernasconi-Osterwalder |first1=Nathalie |last2=Brewin |first2=Sarah |last3=Maina |first3=Nyaguthii |title=Se protéger contre les requêtes d’arbitrage investisseurs-États face à la crise du COVID-19 : Un appel à l’action destiné aux gouvernements |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=April 2020 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/investor-state-claims-covid-19-fr.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bernasconiosterwalder2020protger, author = {Bernasconi-Osterwalder, Nathalie and Brewin, Sarah and Maina, Nyaguthii}, title = {{Se protéger contre les requêtes d’arbitrage investisseurs-États face à la crise du COVID-19 : Un appel à l’action destiné aux gouvernements}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2020}, month = apr, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/investor-state-claims-covid-19-fr.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }