Caline Mouawad - Jessica Beess und Chrostin
January 26, 2023
The twelfth annual Smit-Lowenfeld Prize has been awarded to Caline Mouawad and Jessica Beess und Chrostin for best article in the field of international arbitration published in 2021. The prize is being awarded for their article entitled “The Illegality Objection in Investor-State Arbitration,” which was published in Arbitration International (Vol. 37, No. 1).
The article methodically reviews investment awards that involved an illegality objection. While corruption in investment arbitration has been heavily analyzed, the authors explore the diverse range of objections based on illegal investor conduct other than corruption in investor-state arbitration by examining the analytical framework tribunals apply and the evolving and competing applicable legal standards. The article also identifies established principles and emerging trends to help investment tribunals create a more uniform approach to the illegality objection in future cases.
The prize was presented to Ms. Mouawad and Ms. Beess und Chrostin on January 26, 2023. In making the award, Lawrence W. Newman, Presiding Member of the IACNY and Of Counsel at Baker McKenzie, said: “This is an important article on a heretofore unexplored area of investment treaty arbitration scholarship—the responses of arbitration tribunals to assertions by host countries that claimant investors obtained their investments in violation of local law.”