GPF GP SARL V THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND

[2018] EWHC 409 (Comm), Queen's Bench Division, Commercial Court, Mr Justice Bryan, 2 March 2018

Arbitration - Jurisdiction - Bilateral Investment Treaty - Vienna Convention 1971 - Arbitration Act 1996, section 67

A Bilateral Investment Treaty between the Governments of Poland, Belgium and Luxembourg, effective from 2 August 1991, required arbitration of "disputes relating to expropriation, nationalization or any other similar measures affecting investments, and notably the transfer of an investment into public property, placing it under public supervision as well as any other deprivation or restriction of property rights by state measures that lead to consequences similar to expropriation". GPF, a Luxembourg company, brought arbitration proceedings alleging that various measures of the Polish authorities, culminating in a decision of the Warsaw Court of Appeal, under which GPF was prevented from developing buildings in Warsaw, constituted a failure to award GPF fair and equitable treatment and also amounted to measures having an effect similar to direct or indirect expropriation.