After a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit Japan on March 11, 2011, a 49-foot wave swamped the Fukushima nuclear reactor, the earth shifted 6 inches on its axis, and halfway around the world, German Chancellor Angela Merkel abruptly flipped her position on nuclear energy, shutting down Germany’s nuclear power industry.
Merkel’s move had massive repercussions of its own. Germany’s dominant power companies have sued the state for over 20 billion euros in EU court, German court and, most controversially, the private justice system of international arbitration. Fairly or not, the German nuclear arbitration has become a prime exhibit for arbitration abuse, alongside Philip Morris’ war on tobacco regulators.
