Yasmine Lahlou Publishes Article on States’ Environmental Counterclaims in ISDS in GAR’s Guide to Mining Arbitrations – Second Edition

July 2021 – Yasmine Lahlou and Rainbow Willard, a former Chaffetz Lindsey colleague who recently joined the Department of Justice as a Trial Attorney, have published a chapter on “The Rise of Environmental Counterclaims in Mining Arbitration” in Global Arbitration Review’s (GAR) The Guide to Mining Arbitrations – Second Edition. Their contribution addresses the potential for state-asserted environmental counterclaims in mining arbitrations under an investment treaty. In their chapter, Yasmine and Rainbow analyze:

• How investment treaty tribunals have struggled to find consent to state-asserted counterclaims in treaties with vague or imprecise language and how some new treaties address this issue head on;
• How states have sought to articulate a cause of action when treaties stop short of imposing express obligations on investors and survey new treaty provisions that may give rise to more colourable causes of action;
• Some requirements and challenges that arise from institutional rules and how negotiators are now incorporating these requirements into express treaty terms; and
• The future of environmental counterclaims in this new treaty landscape

Click here to read Yasmine and Rainbow’s chapter.

GAR is the leading resource on international arbitration news and community intelligence. The Guide to Mining Arbitrations – Second Edition offers practical know-how in three parts: the risks and issues mining companies confront; the substantive principles at work; and the regional variations that must be taken into account – written by some of the leading names in mining arbitration. The book follows The Guide to Mining Arbitrations – First Edition, which Yasmine and Rainbow also contributed to in 2019.

The entire publication is available here.