Samvel Karapetyan v. French Republic

At a glance

Parties

Samvel Karapetyan v. the French Republic

Case no.

ICSID Case No. ARB/25/26

Forum and rules

ICSID Convention arbitration; ICSID Arbitration Rules in force as of 1 July 2022; place of proceeding Washington D.C.

Treaty

France–Armenia BIT, signed in Yerevan on 4 November 1995 (Article 7)

Tribunal

Prof. Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler (President), Mr. Cavinder Bull SC, Ms. Loretta Malintoppi

Sector

Real estate (per the ICSID case database description)

Outcome

Pending. The published documents are two procedural orders. The Claimant's Request for Provisional Measures and France's Rule 41 Objection were pending when they were issued.

The dispute

Samvel Karapetyan brought an ICSID claim against France under Article 7 of the France–Armenia BIT of 4 November 1995. The case database describes the subject of the dispute as real estate. The published documents do not set out the facts, the measures complained of or the claims. They show two pending applications: the Claimant's Request for Provisional Measures under ICSID Arbitration Rule 27, filed on 7 July 2025, and France's Objection under ICSID Arbitration Rule 41, filed on 20 January 2026. The published orders deal only with procedure and transparency.

Key holdings

1. The procedural timetable covers only the Rule 41 proceedings and the hearing on the Request for Provisional Measures. If the arbitration continues after the Rule 41 decision, the Tribunal will consult the Parties on the next steps. Procedural Order No. 1, ¶ 15.1
2. English and French are both procedural languages. Orders, decisions and the award are to be issued in both languages at the same time, and both versions are equally authentic. Hearings are held with simultaneous interpretation. Procedural Order No. 1, ¶¶ 12.1–12.5
3. The place of the proceeding is Washington D.C. ICSID is to ask whether in-person hearings can be held in Vienna or The Hague. The Parties pay the direct costs of the proceeding in equal parts, without prejudice to the final decision on costs. Procedural Order No. 1, ¶¶ 10.1, 11.1–11.2
4. With the Parties' consent, Jérôme Richter, an attorney in the President's firm, was appointed Assistant to the Tribunal at USD 300 plus VAT per hour. The Tribunal may use AI tools, including DeepL Pro for translation and Jus AI for research, but will not delegate decision-making to them. Procedural Order No. 1, ¶¶ 8.1–8.2, 28.1–28.4
5. The Parties consent to publication of the award and post-award decisions, and decisions and orders are to be published, in each case subject to the redaction process. Publication of written submissions requires both Parties' consent under ICSID Arbitration Rule 64; the Claimant had opposed publishing them and France had supported it. Neither Party may publish any written submission or supporting document unilaterally. Procedural Order No. 2, ¶¶ 4, 6, 17–21

Procedural history

1. 4 June 2025ICSID registers the request for arbitration. ICSID requests advances totalling USD 400,000, and the Claimant is asked to pay USD 200,000.
2. 7 July 2025The Claimant files a Request for Provisional Measures under ICSID Arbitration Rule 27.
3. 8 December 2025The Tribunal is constituted.
4. 20 January 2026France files an Objection under ICSID Arbitration Rule 41.
5. 11 February 2026First session of the Tribunal, held by video conference.
6. 20 March 2026Procedural Order No. 1 sets the procedural rules and a timetable for the Rule 41 and provisional measures phase.
7. 7 May 2026Procedural Order No. 2 sets the transparency and confidentiality regime.

Tribunal, counsel and experts

Decided by

• Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler President — appointed by the parties jointly
• Cavinder Bull Co-arbitrator
• Loretta Malintoppi Co-arbitrator

For the claimant

Pinna Goldberg Law Firm · Ivanyan & Partners

For the respondent

Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Legal Affairs Directorate

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Keywords

• Armenia–France BIT
• provisional measures
• Rule 41 objection
• manifest lack of legal merit
• preliminary objections
• 2022 ICSID Arbitration Rules
• transparency
• confidentiality
• publication of submissions
• real estate
• tribunal assistant
• artificial intelligence
• DeepL Pro
• UNCITRAL Code of Conduct
• bilingual proceedings
• Redfern schedule

Summary generated with AI from the published documents — refer to the award for the authoritative text.