BG Group v. Argentina made few headlines when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated BG’s $185 million arbitral award earlier this month. But there was a reason that the American Arbitration Association, the U.S. committee to the International Chamber of Commerce and 31 poobahs of arbitration all saw fit to back BG as amici. BG removed a threat to the business of international arbitration in the United States, and to the autonomy of arbitrators everywhere. In the process, it renewed the pressure on Argentina and other scofflaws to honor their obligations to international investors.
“It’s a victory for the U.S. as a seat of investor-state disputes,” says BG counsel Elliot Friedman of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Adds his partner Alex Yanos: “It shows unequivocally that arbitrability is for arbitrators, and courts should keep their hands off.”
