Colombia: A Dispute Resolution: Arbitration Overview

President Abelardo de la Espriella took office in Colombia in August 2026 for a four-year term. The new administration is expected to have a positive impact on arbitration in Colombia and to mark a shift from the outgoing government’s stance on this area. Four main trends will likely be seen in the coming year.

Core Trends

Investment arbitration

First, it is highly likely that international investment agreements (IIAs) and the use of investment arbitration as a means of resolving investment disputes will continue to increase. The previous government publicly announced Colombia’s withdrawal from the investor-State dispute settlement system (ISDS), including the renegotiation of existing IIAs and withdrawal from the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). However, the outgoing government did not follow through on those announcements. The new government has announced that it will strengthen and promote new IIAs and that it will respect the protections granted to foreign investors in Colombia, which appears to reverse the previous stance and signal a move towards promoting IIAs and, more broadly, the use of the ISDS to promote and attract foreign investment.

Sector revitalisation

Second, the new government has also announced that it will focus on revitalising certain specific sectors, such as infrastructure, construction, energy, oil and gas, and mining. Promoting new projects in these specific industries poses a number of significant challenges, such as the convergence of private economic interests, environmental and public policy objectives, and community expectations. All of this, combined with the heavy capital investment, the involvement of multinational companies and foreign investors, and the complex disputes that usually arise from such projects, will most likely increase the use of international arbitration as a mechanism to resolve disputes involving projects in Colombia in the coming years.

Courts’ approach to arbitration

Third, Colombia continues to position itself as a friendly seat for international arbitration. In general, Colombian courts continue to be friendly towards arbitration, with annulments being very rare and limited to serious procedural violations. Furthermore, Colombia’s government signed a Host Country Agreement with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) that will facilitate the conduct of PCA proceedings within the country, thereby strengthening Colombia as a seat for international arbitrations, particularly for cases involving Latin America.

Legislation

Fourth and finally, Congress has recently passed new legislation allowing for arbitration in collection proceedings. While it remains to be seen how this new legislation will work and what effects it will have – and although its application appears, in principle, to be limited to domestic arbitration – it does create a new frontier for the use of arbitration as a means of resolving commercial disputes and for creditors to collect debts more easily.

Other Key Trends and Challenges

The expectation is that arbitration will continue to consolidate in Colombia as the preferred method for resolving business disputes. Over past years, and despite some of the objections raised by the former government regarding its use, the reality is that international arbitration has continued to grow in the country. The 2025 ICC Dispute Resolution Statistics, compiled by the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), show that, in that year, 31 new international arbitrations – in which one of the parties was a Colombian national – were initiated under the ICC Rules of Arbitration, placing Colombia just behind Brazil and Mexico as the countries in the region with the highest representation of parties in international arbitrations under the ICC Rules in 2025. The participation of Colombian arbitrators in international arbitrations under the ICC Rules of Arbitration follows a similar trend: in 2025, 23 Colombian arbitrators were appointed to ICC arbitrations, ranking just behind Brazil, Mexico and Argentina in the region.

The trend is similar in international arbitrations initiated under the Rules of the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce, Colombia’s largest arbitration institution. According to public data from the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce, 119 new international arbitration proceedings were initiated under its Rules over the past four years (16 in 2022, 68 in 2023, 18 in 2024 and 17 in 2025). Similarly, according to public data from Colombia’s National Infrastructure Agency (ANI), the Colombian government is currently facing 24 international commercial arbitration cases related to the infrastructure sector.

Turning to investment arbitration, statistics from ICSID for the first half of 2026 show that 63 new arbitration cases were filed in 2025, representing an increase compared to previous years (55 in 2024, 57 in 2023 and 41 in 2022). Of these new cases in 2025, four were filed against Colombia, making it the most frequently sued country in the region in 2025. According to Colombia’s National Agency for the Legal Defense of the State (ANDJE), Colombia is currently facing 17 investment arbitration cases before various forums (primarily ICSID and the PCA) that are in the arbitration or annulment stage, with total claims exceeding USD18 billion.

However, the coming year will not be without challenges. After several years of relatively modest economic growth, companies continue to demand more efficient and cost-effective procedures. In particular, clients remain concerned about high legal costs, long-lasting procedures, and the ability to enforce the award – factors that may lead companies to reconsider their decision to resort to arbitration in certain matters. The arbitration community should continue addressing these concerns. Promoting, among other things, a responsible use of artificial intelligence, the adoption of more streamlined and cost-effective procedures (such as expedited arbitrations), rules on early case determination (such as those recently included in the latest amendment to the ICC Rules) and third-party funding represent opportunities to adapt to clients’ needs while still ensuring that arbitration remains the preferred method for resolving business disputes.