The Supreme Court Hears Argument on Whether Courts or Arbitrators Should Decide if a Precondition to Arbitration Has Been Satisfied in the Context of Investment Treaty Arbitrations
The Supreme Court heard oral argument yesterday in BG Group PLC v. Republic of Argentina, a case in which the Court will address the question of “who”—a court or an arbitrator—should decide whether a precondition to arbitration has been satisfied in disputes involving a multi-staged dispute resolution process. The case is significant because it represents the first time that the Court will consider this issue in the context of an investor-state arbitration under a bilateral investment treaty—one of thousands of such treaties entered into in recent decades between states, which seek to promote foreign direct investment by conferring protections on investments and providing for arbitration of claims brought by investors of one state against the other state.