The Prospect of Enforcement of Hague Arbitration Awards against State-Controlled Companies in the United States and the United Kingdom

Abstract

In 2014 the Permanent Arbitration Court in The Hague made unprecedented awards totalling US$50 billion against the Russian Federation. The awards crowned more than nine years of arbitration proceedings initiated by the former shareholders of the liquidated oil company Yukos. Although the former shareholders of Yukos represented by the GML Group declared their intention to only enforce the awards against the assets of the Russian state, the lack of assets not covered by state immunity inevitably opens the possibility of enforcement of the awards against the assets owned by the Russian majors controlled by the state. Due to its involvement in the Yukos case, Rosneft, the biggest Russian oil company, will undoubtedly be the first and the main target of such enforcement. This article aims to examine whether the former shareholders of Yukos could succeed in enforcement of foreign arbitration awards in the two main jurisdictions: the United Kingdom and the United States. The article examines the existing legal tests applicable in enforcement proceedings in these jurisdictions to state-controlled companies by considering the corporate structure of Rosneft and its business operations. The findings of the research are widely applicable to the other state-controlled Russian companies.