Woodhouse Investment Pte Ltd and West Cumbria Mining (Holdings) Limited v. United Kingdom

At a glance

Parties

Woodhouse Investment Pte Ltd and West Cumbria Mining (Holdings) Limited v. the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Case no.

ICSID Case No. ARB/25/37

Forum and rules

ICSID Convention arbitration; ICSID Arbitration Rules in force as of 1 July 2022; place of proceeding Paris, France

Treaty

United Kingdom–Singapore BIT, signed 22 July 1975

Tribunal

Prof. Juan Fernández-Armesto (President), Dr. Michael Pryles, Prof. Sean D. Murphy

Sector

Coal mining project

Outcome

Pending. The published documents are three procedural orders (January–March 2026) and do not show any decision on jurisdiction or the merits.

The dispute

The claimants, Woodhouse Investment Pte Ltd and West Cumbria Mining (Holdings) Limited, brought an ICSID claim against the United Kingdom under the 1975 United Kingdom–Singapore investment treaty. The ICSID case database describes the subject of the dispute as a coal mining project. The published procedural orders do not describe the investment, the measures complained of, the claims or the defences. The procedural timetable in Annex A to Procedural Order No. 1 provides for a Counter-Memorial on Jurisdiction and a Reply on Jurisdiction, which indicates that the United Kingdom intends to raise jurisdictional objections alongside its defence on the merits.

Key holdings

1. The arbitration is conducted under the ICSID Arbitration Rules in force as of 1 July 2022. The Tribunal was constituted on 18 November 2025, and the parties confirmed that they had no objection to any member. Procedural Order No. 1, ¶¶ 1.1, 2.1
2. Paris, France, is the place of the proceeding, and English is the procedural language. The parties share the direct costs equally for now. ICSID requested an initial advance of USD 400,000, and each side paid USD 200,000. Procedural Order No. 1, ¶¶ 10.1–12.1
3. The parties agreed page limits of 200 pages for the Memorial and Counter-Memorial and 150 pages for the Reply and Rejoinder. The Tribunal encouraged them to keep to 175 and 125 pages. Procedural Order No. 1, ¶ 15.4
4. The parties and the Tribunal may use AI tools, including generative AI, for tasks such as summaries and legal research. Any AI output must be independently verified, and all determinations remain the Tribunal's sole responsibility. Procedural Order No. 1, ¶¶ 30.1–30.4
5. Transparency regime: the parties consent to ICSID publishing the Award and post-award decisions, with agreed redactions, and the Tribunal's orders and decisions will be published. Written submissions, supporting documents, transcripts and recordings will not be published, and hearings are closed to the public. The Tribunal recorded the United Kingdom's position that its Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 protect certain information from disclosure. Procedural Order No. 2, ¶¶ 9, 11–17
6. Document production will be guided by the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence (2020), and parties are invited to limit themselves to 25 requests each. The order sets out the requirements for requests and the permitted objections, including political or institutional sensitivity. The Tribunal will allocate the costs of document production separately, taking account of the reasonableness of the requests and objections and each party's relative success. Procedural Order No. 3, ¶¶ 8, 13, 15–47, 63

Procedural history

1. 8 August 2025After the Request for Arbitration was registered, ICSID requests an initial advance of USD 400,000 and asks the claimants to pay USD 200,000.
2. 18 November 2025The Tribunal is constituted; arbitrators had accepted their appointments on 22 September, 21 October and 18 November 2025.
3. 16 January 2026First session of the Tribunal, held by video conference.
4. 27 January 2026Procedural Order No. 1 sets the procedural rules and the timetable.
5. 27 January 2026Procedural Order No. 2 sets the transparency and confidentiality rules.
6. 6 March 2026Procedural Order No. 3 sets the rules for document production.
7. 25 October – 3 November 2027Hearing scheduled for 25 to 30 October and 1 to 3 November 2027, subject to review after the first round of pleadings.

Tribunal, counsel and experts

Decided by

• Juan Fernández-Armesto President
• Michael Pryles Co-arbitrator
• Sean D. Murphy Co-arbitrator

For the claimant

Thomas More Chambers · Withers LLP · West Cumbria Mining (Holdings) Limited

For the respondent

Essex Court Chambers · Twenty Essex · UK Department for Business and Trade Legal Advisers

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Keywords

• coal mining
• West Cumbria Mining
• United Kingdom–Singapore BIT
• ICSID Arbitration Rules 2022
• procedural order
• document production
• IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence
• transparency
• confidentiality
• Freedom of Information Act 2000
• Environmental Information Regulations 2004
• artificial intelligence
• third-party funding
• privilege log
• jurisdictional objections
• tribunal assistant

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