International Arbitration in Latin America

Book excerpt: Energy projects in Latin America are a major contributor to economic growth worldwide. This book is the first to offer a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of specific issues arising from energy and natural resources contracts and disputes in the region, covering a wide range of procedural, substantive, and socio-legal issues. The book also includes how states have shifted from passive business partners to more active controlling players. The book contains an extensive treatment and examination of the particularities of arbitration practice in Latin America, including arbitrability, public order, enforcement, and the complex public-private nature of energy transactions. Specialists experienced in resolving international energy and natural disputes throughout the region provide detailed analysis of such issues and topics, including: state-owned entities as co-investors or contracting parties; role of environmental law, indigenous rights and public participation; issues related to political changes, corruption, and quantification of damages; climate change, renewable energy, and the energy transition; force majeure, hardship, and price reopeners; arbitration in the electricity sector; take-or-pay contracts; recognition and enforcement of awards; tension between stabilization clauses and human rights; mediation as a method for dispute settlement in the energy and natural resources sector; and different comparative approaches taken by national courts in key Latin American jurisdictions. The book also delivers a clear explanation on the impact made to the arbitration process by Covid-19, emerging laws, changes of political circumstances, the economic global trends in the oil & gas market, the energy transition, and the rise of new technologies. This invaluable book will be welcomed by in-house lawyers, government officials, as well as academics and rest of the arbitration community involved in international arbitration with particular interest in the energy and natural resources sector.