See You in Court! What to Expect When Facing Investment Arbitration in Peru
In this, the sixth of seven podcasts on international arbitration in Latin America from Baker McKenzie and Trench Rossi Watanabe, MarÃa de Carmen Tovar and Ana MarÃa Arrarte, partners in the Baker McKenzie Lima office, analyse the protections offered to foreign investors in Peru.
The Peruvian legal framework allows foreign investors to sue Peru when their investments are affected
In the early 1990s Peru carried out economic reform, the cornerstone of which was constitutionally guaranteed equal protection for all private investors. Despite the opposition of the current Peruvian government, these protections are still in force.
Peru has also signed more than 40 treaties granting protection to foreign investors as well as an important number of free trade agreements.
These treaties provide better protection than domestic law. National laws can be changed by the state but the warranties included in the treaties cannot be easily modified.
Key advice for investors
Investors should be aware of the available protections and their limitations.
An investor will normally have a limited window of time in which to make a claim and also be obliged to wait for a certain period before claiming.
Fork in the road provisions
Once an investor has referred an issue to the competent court of the contracting party on whose territory the investment was made, or to the arbitral tribunal, that choice shall be final.
Many local lawyers do not know these rules, do not have them in mind and recommend taking local actions that can undermine any subsequent resort to international arbitral action.
Baker McKenzie
