Guinea fends off telecoms enforcement
The West African Country has prevailed in a US court, which has refused to enforce a USD 22 million ICC arbitral award on the basis the state was not a party to the agreement.
A US court has dismissed an application by telecommunications company Global Voice Group (GVG) to enforce an arbitral award against the state of Guinea.
***
“It is rewarding that Judge Cobb found the caselaw introduced by Guinea ‘quite helpful in resolving the subject matter jurisdiction issue.’ Furthermore, Judge Cobb appreciated the key nuance in this case: there was a credible dispute over whether Guinea was party to the document containing the arbitration agreement,” said Alexander Bedrosyan, formerly of the Hughes Hubbard team advising Guinea but now an associate at Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss in Washington. “In that circumstance, a plaintiff must do more than simply provide the arbitration agreement and arbitration award in order to meet its burden of production under the FSIA’s arbitration exception. Judge Cobb’s decision prevents plaintiffs from relying on circular reasoning and ensures that judges will not abdicate their duty to determine whether subject matter jurisdiction exists.”
Click here to read the full article (registration may be required).
Related: