Introduction On 30 March 2026, Ecuador’s Constitutional Court issued Dictamen 19-25-TI/26A, conditionally approving the Agreement for the Promotion and Protection of Investments between Ecuador and the United Arab Emirates (the “UAE BIT”), including the investor-State dispute settlement (“ISDS”) mechanism established in Article 20. The ruling concludes a two-stage constitutional review: on 5 March 2026, the Court determined that the UAE BIT required full constitutional review under Article 419 of Ecuador’s 2008 Constitution; the 30 March ruling delivered that review. Legislative approval by the National Assembly remains a condition of ratification—expected to follow, given the ruling party’s majority—after the amended text is re-submitted to the Court for verification. The central question put to the Court was narrow: does Article 422 of Ecuador’s Constitution prohibit investment treaties containing international arbitration or ISDS clauses? Article 422 provides, in its relevant part, that Ecuador “shall not conclude treaties or international instruments in which the State cedes sovereign jurisdiction to international arbitral bodies in disputes of a contractual or commercial nature between the State…
Bilateral Investment Treaties
Page 1 of 20
Essential Security Interests Exceptions and the Limits of Self-Judgment: Implications of Riverside Coffee v Nicaragua
In recent years, national security has increasingly served as a justification to deviate from international law obligations. The ICSID award in Riverside Coffee v Nicaragua has added a new layer to the developing case law on the interplay between essential security interests exceptions and the notion of self-judgment in the context of investment arbitration. …
Time, Form, and Coalitions: Reflections on the 53rd Session of UNCITRAL Working Group III
The 53rd Session of UNCITRAL Working Group III (WGIII), held in mid-January 2026 in New York, marked another modest but revealing step in the long road toward reforming investor–State dispute settlement (ISDS). The meeting delivered some progress, particularly in clarifying what kind of legal instrument(s) might eventually emerge from the cluster of partially linked reform options grouped together for discussion…
Two Weeks in Review: 26 January—6 February 2026
The last two weeks have taken us from headlines to bylines and beyond. Front-page legal questions on USA-Greenland and Russia-Ukraine continue to occupy commentators. While others draw our attention to the lesser thumbed back pages: from colonial-era agreements in contemporary arbitration, and the recognition of Somaliland, to the "stateless eight" suspended in legal limbo at the International Residual…
Fast-Tracking the UAE-Ecuador BIT: Executive Decrees, Constitutional Limits, and Democratic Resistance to ISDS
Introduction: a treaty everyone knows is unconstitutional Ecuador is once again at the centre of global debates on investor–State dispute settlement (ISDS). In December 2025, President Noboa signed a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that re‑introduces ISDS into a legal order which, since 2008, has constitutionally prohibited the State from…
- Page 1 of 20
- Last