Procedural Posture

This document is a Petition to Recognize and Enforce an ICSID Arbitration Award filed by AES Corporation against the Argentine Republic in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The Petitioner seeks to enforce a May 30, 2025 ICSID award rendered in its favor, which found Argentina in breach of the fair and equitable treatment and non-impairment standards under the Argentina-U.S. Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT).

Legal Issues and Petitioner's Positions

The Petitioner asserts that the District Court possesses subject matter jurisdiction under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), 28 U.S.C. § 1330(a), arguing that Argentina is not entitled to sovereign immunity due to the FSIA's implied waiver and arbitral award exceptions (28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(1) and (6)). The Petitioner further relies on 22 U.S.C. § 1650a, which grants federal courts exclusive jurisdiction over actions to enforce ICSID awards and mandates that such awards be given the same full faith and credit as a final judgment of a state court.

Anticipating potential defenses, the Petitioner emphasizes that under Article 53(1) of the ICSID Convention and the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), the Court is strictly precluded from entertaining any substantive challenges or collateral attacks on the merits of the arbitral award. The Petitioner notes that the exclusive remedy for challenging an ICSID award is through the Convention's annulment mechanism, which Argentina has not pursued.

Relief Sought

The Petitioner requests the entry of an order recognizing and enforcing the ICSID award in its entirety. Specifically, the Petitioner seeks judgment for the unpaid damages of $715,900,000, legal fees of $15,807,955.30, and arbitration costs of $1,273,176.52, alongside applicable pre-award and post-judgment interest.

Procedural Background

This document constitutes Procedural Order No. 2, issued by the ad hoc Committee in the annulment proceeding initiated by the Argentine Republic against The AES Corporation. Following the first session held by video conference on March 10, 2026, the Committee issued this Order to establish the procedural framework governing the annulment phase, applying the 1984 ICSID Arbitration Rules mutatis mutandis pursuant to Rule 53.

Procedural Rules and Directions

The Order delineates comprehensive logistical and procedural protocols, including the apportionment of advance payments, which the Applicant (Argentina) is directed to bear solely in the first instance, without prejudice to the final allocation of costs. The Committee designated Washington, D.C. as the formal place of proceedings and established English and Spanish as the dual procedural languages.

Furthermore, the Committee set strict parameters for the evidentiary record, emphasizing that annulment proceedings rely primarily on the underlying arbitration record. The introduction of new documentary evidence, witness statements, or expert reports is expressly prohibited absent a showing of special circumstances and subsequent Committee authorization. The Order concludes with a detailed procedural calendar (Annex B), scheduling the exchange of written submissions and reserving dates for the hearing on annulment in March 2027.