Melanie van Leeuwen has been chosen to chair the Tribunal in an ICSID arbitration dispute between US investors and the Republic of Armenia. This nomination has been reported in two articles.
Article published in Investment Arbitration Reporter on 16 March 2018:
“A tribunal has been constituted to hear an ICSID arbitration brought by Edmond Khudyan and Arin Capital & Investment Corp against the Republic of Armenia.
The tribunal was finalized on March 16 2018 with the appointment of Melanie Van Leeuwen by the parties. Ms. Van Leeuwen is a partner at Derains & Gharavi in Paris and was previously tapped by Horthel Systems Tesa Beheer BV and Poland Gaming Holding BV to sit as the claimants’ nominee in a BIT claim against Poland.
Ank Santens of White & Case was earlier appointed by the claimants and Armenia nominated Zachary Douglas.
As we reported, the dispute relates to the US claimants’ investment in a luxury real estate project. The claimants contend Armenian authorities did nothing to come to their assistance after they were defrauded by their local partners.
We reported that, due to the relatively small size of their claim ($10-15 million) the investors initially proposed that a sole arbitrator should hear the case. However, it appears that Armenia has not agreed to that proposal.
The claimants are represented by Hughes, Hubbard & Reed. Armenia has retained CMS Hasche Sigle in Munich and Hong Kong, and Concern Dialog Law Firm in Yerevan“.
Article published in GAR on 26 March 2018 (extracts):
“The latest round of panels formed at ICSID has seen first-time appointments for Melanie van Leeuwen of Derains & Gharavi, Ank Santens of White & Case, Brazil’s Eduardo Damião Gonçalves and five others, while beleaguered Bulgarian arbitrator Stanimir Alexandrov has received six appointments.
Since GAR’s last tribunal round-up in January, new panels have been formed in 23 cases. These include 14 new claims against countries including Armenia, Croatia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Romania, Saudia Arabia, Spain, Tanzania and Uzbekistan. Four annulment committees have been formed while five tribunals have been reconstituted following the resignation of an arbitrator (in one case, an arbitrator rejoined the panel after having resigned from it).
First-timers van Leeuwen and Santens are sitting together on a tribunal that will hear a US$15 million claim against Armenia brought by US businessman Edmond Khudyan and his California company Arin Capital. The case concerns the state’s alleged failure to act on allegations that Khudyan was defrauded by his business partner in a bankrupt real estate venture.
A Dutch national based in Paris, van Leeuwen is chairing the tribunal while Santens, a Belgian-based practitioner in New York, has been appointed by the claimants. Armenia has nominated Australian Zachary Douglas QC of Matrix Chambers in Geneva.
[…]
Edmond Khudyan and Arin Capital & Investment Corp v Republic of Armenia (ICSID Case No. ARB/17/36)
Date constituted: 15 March
• Melanie van Leeuwen (Netherlands) (appointed by the parties)
• Ank Santens (Belgium) (appointed by the claimants)
• Zachary Douglas QC (Australia) (appointed by Armenia)“
Hamid Gharavi has been nominated as arbitrator in the TAS-CAS arbitration matter of 39 Russian athletes vs the IOC related to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games. The case is reported in A GAR article published on 18 January 2018 which reads as follows:
“Russia doping scandal appeals to be heard en masse by CAS
Russia enters the 2010 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony, wikicommons/s.yume
Two Court of Arbitration for Sport tribunals will next week simultaneously hear 39 of the 42 appeals lodged by Russian athletes in a conference centre in Geneva, as they look to overturn their lifetime bans following the state-sponsored doping scandal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
The Lausanne-based court announced yesterday that although a CAS procedure was opened for each individual athlete, their appeals against the International Olympic Committee’s blanket ban will be heard collectively in three batches.
It is thought to be the first time the court has consolidated so many individual appeals, as it seeks to dispose of all the cases ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next month.
Tribunals have already been formed for the first two groups of appeals, both chaired by German arbitrator and University of Augsburg professor Christoph Vedder and including Dirk-Reiner Martens of Martens Lawyers in Munich. For the first group, the final tribunal member will be French-Iranian arbitrator Hamid Gharavi of Derains & Gharavi in Paris. For the second, it will be Austrian arbitrator and academic Michael Geistlinger.
Group 1 comprises 28 athletes including Sochi 2014 gold medallists Alexander Legkov (cross country skiing), Aleks Tretiakov (skeleton) and bobsleigh trio Aleksei Negodailo, Dmitry Trunenkov and Aleksandr Zubkov. Group 2 is made up primarily of women ice hockey players.
Group 3’s appeals have been suspended and are not being heard next week. This is the smallest group, comprised of three “biathletes” who compete in an event comprising rifle shooting and cross country skiing.
The proceedings in groups 1 and 2 will be conducted jointly – with a combined hearing taking place from 22 to 27 January. Due to its huge size, it will be held at Geneva’s International Conference Centre, although it will not be open to the public.
The IOC will be represented by a team from Kellerhalls Carrard in Lausanne led by partners Jean-Pierre Morand and David Casserly. Casserly, a former legal counsel at CAS, joined the firm in December.
Counsel to the Russian athletes is unknown but they have previously relied on sports practitioner Mike Morgan in London.
Among those expected to testify is Canadian professor and arbitrator Richard McLaren – author of a two-part report which found that more than 1,000 Russian competitors in various sports (including summer, winter, and Paralympic sports) had benefitted from a state-sponsored doping regime.
Also appearing by video link will be Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of Moscow’s Anti-Doping Centre who is currently under witness protection in the United States after he admitted to working alongside Russian intelligence services to systematically interfere with hundreds of urine samples during the Sochi Games.
Rodchenkov and McLaren are both interviewed in Netflix documentary Icarus, in which US cyclist and filmmaker Bryan Fogle uncovers the extent of the state’s doping activities.
The International Olympic Committee banned 43 Russian athletes from competing at the Winter Olympics on the basis of McLaren’s report. The only banned athlete not to have appealed is Maxim Belugin, who was part of the two-man and four-man bobsleigh teams that finished fourth at Sochi.
If cleared, the athletes will be allowed to compete at the approaching games in Pyeongchang as “neutrals”, unaffiliated to any country.
McLaren’s report also led to the blanket ban of Russian athletes competing at the 2016 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Both bans were upheld following appeals to CAS.
GAR understands that CAS has recently made its selection of arbitrators who will form an ad hoc division to arbitrate disputes arising during the games in Pyeongchang. The list has yet to be publicised.
39 Russian athletes v the International Olympic Committee
Tribunal in Group 1 proceeding
Christoph Vedder (Germany) (president)
Hamid Gharavi (France)
Dirk-Reiner Martens (Germany)
Tribunal in Group 2 proceeding
Christoph Vedder (Germany) (president)
Michael Geistlinger (Austria)
Dirk-Reiner Martens (Germany)
Counsel to IOC
Kellerhals Carrard
Partners Jean-Pierre Morand and David Casserly in Lausanne
Counsel to ROC
Morgan Sports Law
Partner Mike Morgan in London”