Public International Law and International Trade & Investment Law

LALIVE has a long-standing experience in dealing with public international law matters, including international claims, state responsibility, state relations with intergovernmental organizations, state successions, international land and maritime boundaries, foreign investment, trade regulations and state contracts.

 

Lawyers of the firm regularly act as experts, counsel and arbitrators in state-investor disputes arising out of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) in proceedings under the Arbitration Rules of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) or the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

 

The firm’s specialists in public international law have represented clients on numerous occasions before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, the administrative tribunals of the United Nations, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). They have acted as counsel and adjudicators in a variety of international claims proceedings related to World War II and the Holocaust and to conflicts in the Middle-East, the Balkans and Africa.

 

LALIVE also regularly represents clients in international criminal law proceedings. One of the firm's partners is admitted to plead before the International Criminal Court. The firm has advised and acted on behalf of governments and non-governmental entities in relation to international criminal law matters such as war crimes, terrorism, genocide and crimes against humanity.

 

Regarding international trade and investment law, LALIVE provides regulatory services (advice / technical assistance and legislation review) as well as dispute resolution services, to WTO members and aspiring members, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), private and state-owned enterprises, as well as other law firms active in the field.

 

Selected assignments:

 

  • Representing the Government of a Middle Eastern country in an international claims process against a profit loss claim of more than US$ 100 billion, the largest in the history of international adjudication
  • Representing a Central European Government in a € 150 million dispute with a Dutch petroleum company arbitrated under the ICSID arbitration rules
  • Representing Italian investors in annulment proceedings under the ICSID arbitration rules of an award rendered in a € 32 million construction dispute
  • Professor Lalive acting as Chairman in an ICSID arbitration concerning the alleged expropriation of investments in South America
  • Representing several WTO members before the WTO Appellate Body


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