In recent years, national security has increasingly served as a justification to deviate from international law obligations. The ICSID award in Riverside Coffee v Nicaragua has added a new layer to the developing case law on the interplay between essential security interests exceptions and the notion of self-judgment in the context of investment arbitration. …

On 27 June 2024, the tribunal in the investment dispute Seda v Colombia delivered a long-awaited award. The decision, hailed by Colombia as ‘historic’, represents the first publicly available award where an investment tribunal accepted the ‘self-judging’ character of a provision within an investment agreement. Additionally, it is the first public award to dismiss an entire…