Ashique Rahman

Practice Areas

Ashique is a partner at Saadeh Rahman LLP. He has a broad practice in public international law and international dispute resolution. For over a decade, Ashique has represented States and private parties as counsel and advocate in their public international law disputes before international courts and tribunals. He has led teams of lawyers in complex, high-value arbitrations under the ICSID, ICC, LCIA, SCC and UNCITRAL Rules, including some of the most high-profile investor-State arbitrations of the recent past.

Ashique also advises governments, international organisations and multinational companies on their rights and obligations under public international law and its subsets, including international humanitarian law, the law of treaties, jurisdictional immunities and international environmental law. He has taught courses at leading universities in the United Kingdom and in Europe. Ashique also delivers practical training in public international law and international arbitration to government lawyers throughout the world.

Prior to establishing Saadeh Rahman LLP, Ashique was a partner at a top-tier public international law firm in London.

Work Highlights

Highlights of Ashique’s advisory and contentious practice have included:

• Representing Pakistan in its written and oral submissions to the International Court of Justice in the advisory opinion proceedings concerning the 'Obligations of Israel in relation to the Presence and Activities of the United Nations, Other International Organizations and Third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory'

• Representing a multinational energy company in a dispute under two bilateral investment treaties with an African state

• Representing Croatia in an ad hoc arbitration brought by a Canadian investor under a bilateral investment treaty involving issues of state succession with respect to real estate interests

• Representing (alongside co-counsel from another firm) an African State in an ICSID arbitration concerning a purported investment in the energy sector

• Representing (alongside co-counsel from another firm) a Latin American State in an ICSID arbitration brought by a global mining company concerning one of the largest coal mines in the world

• Representing three Mauritian investors (Suffolk (Mauritius) Limited, Mansfield (Mauritius) Limited and Silver Point Mauritius) in a claim against Portugal brought under the Mauritius-Portugal BIT arising out of the collapse of one of Portugal’s largest banks, Banco Espírito Santo

• Representing two claimants from the Middle East in a claim against Ethiopia under the a BIT relating to the State’s unlawful expropriation of investments in the construction sector

• Representing Big Sky Energy Corporation, a US oil company, in a pending arbitration brought under a bilateral investment treaty against the Republic of Kazakhstan

• Advising a global investment fund and construction group on an investor-State arbitration under the OIC Agreement relating to large construction project in the Middle East

• Advising a global investment fund and construction group on a potential commercial arbitration with a sovereign wealth fund of a country in the Middle East

• Representing PL Holdings S.à r.l., a Luxembourg company, in its SCC arbitration against the Republic of Poland brought pursuant to an intra-EU BIT and an ad hoc arbitration agreement under Swedish law

• Representing PL Holdings in set-aside proceedings in Sweden (the seat of the arbitration) relating to two awards won against Poland worth in excess of €150 million

• Representing Koch Minerals Sárl and Koch Nitrogen International Sárl in an ICSID arbitration brought under a bilateral investment treaty against Venezuela

• Representing City-State N.V. (Netherlands) and its subsidiaries in an ICSID arbitration brought under a bilateral investment treaty against Ukraine

• Representing more than 900 Greek and Luxembourgian investors in a pending ICSID arbitration brought under two bilateral investment treaties against Cyprus

• Representing Libananco Holdings Company Limited (Cyprus) in a post-Award ICSID annulment application

• Representing Vigotop Limited (Cyprus) in an ICSID arbitration brought under a bilateral investment treaty against Hungary

• Advising a multinational corporation in an investment treaty dispute with the Kyrgyz Republic

• Advising a foreign investor in respect of a potential treaty arbitration against Ukraine

• Representing the national oil company of a Balkan State in an UNCITRAL Rules arbitration against an Italian energy company

• Advising a third-party funder in connection with separate treaty arbitrations against Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

• Advising a third-party funder in connection with a potential treaty arbitration against a Middle Eastern State

• Advising a third-party funder in connection with potential treaty claims, including “mass claims” at ICSID

• Representing the Respondent in a LCIA arbitration concerning a dispute in relation to two petroleum coke supply contracts

• Advising an Asian State with respect to an UNCLOS arbitral award

• Advising a European oil company in an ICC Rules arbitration against a Turkish energy company

• Advising a State on strategies for pursuing its maritime delimitation with a neighbour, including in relation to its submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf

• Advising a global engineering and construction firm on the protections available under international investment treaties with respect to an investment in a Gulf State

• Advising an Asian State on various public international law issues

• Advising an Asian State on the obligations of self-restraint and cooperation under Articles 74(3) and 83(3) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

• Advising a regional customs union on issues of treaty interpretation

• Advising a State on the international law implications of the ongoing conflicts in Syria and Israel/Palestine

• Advising an NGO on a range of international law issues arising during the negotiation of the Arms Trade Treaty