NEW YORK, August 30, 2016: Gross & Klein LLP partner Stuart Gross is quoted by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hamby, in his article titled “The Billion Dollar Ultimatum” about the use of investor state dispute settlement (“ISDS”) processes by transnational companies to override environmental and socioeconomic laws in host states. The article examines, in particular, threats to initiate ISDS processes, under various investment treaties and Indonesia’s international investment law, used by transnational mining companies to coerce the government of Indonesia into abandoning enforcement of a ban on open-pit mining in protected forests. In 2003, Stuart published an article tilted “Inordinate Chill: BITs, MITs, and Host-State Regulatory Freedom – An Indonesian Case Study,” in the Michigan Journal of International Law, which examined the foregoing events in Indonesia and the legal context that made them possible. Stuart’s article is extensively cited in books and articles concerning international investment law and ISDS.
“The Billion Dollar Ultimatum” by Chris Hamby can be found here.