Arnold & Porter Secures Fifth Consecutive Victory for Costa Rica in US$400 Million Investment Arbitration
Arnold & Porter’s International Arbitration group has achieved its fifth consecutive victory for the Republic of Costa Rica, further strengthening the firm’s industry-leading 98.2% success rate for States in investment treaty proceedings.
Arnold & Porter represented Costa Rica in a decade-long dispute concerning a gold mine project. The claimant, Canadian mining company Infinito Gold Ltd. (Infinito), had initiated an ICSID arbitration against Costa Rica under the Canada-Costa Rica bilateral investment treaty (Infinito Gold Ltd. v. Republic of Costa Rica (ICSID Case No. ARB/14/25)). In that arbitration, Infinito challenged measures taken by Costa Rica to protect the environment and local communities from the harm caused by open-pit mining activities, and sought nearly US$400 million in compensation.
The firm successfully defended Costa Rica against these claims, and on June 4, 2021, the ICSID tribunal issued an award rejecting in its entirety Infinito’s US$400 million compensation claim.
Dissatisfied with this outcome, Infinito then initiated annulment proceedings before ICSID, seeking to annul the Tribunal’s decision on damages. However, a few days after Costa Rica submitted its final written submission, Infinito decided to withdraw its annulment claims with prejudice. Accordingly, the annulment Committee confirmed the discontinuance of the proceeding on July 15, 2024, thus definitively concluding the dispute and cementing the significant victory that Arnold & Porter had obtained on behalf of Costa Rica in the underlying ICSID arbitration.
After this win, the firm’s track record stands at an unprecedented 55 positive results out of the most recent 56 awards and decisions on behalf of States in investment treaty disputes.
The Arnold & Porter team in the Infinito annulment proceeding was led by partners Patricio Grané Labat and Paolo Di Rosa, and included counsel Álvaro Nistal, senior associates Katelyn Horne and Paloma García Guerra, as well as legal consultant Natalia Giraldo-Carrillo.
