Federal Court says Spain can't hide behind foreign state immunity

The Federal Court of Australia has ordered Spain to pay over $375 million plus interest to solar companies from Luxembourg, the Netherlands and England, in a landmark decision that confirms Australia's responsibility to recognise binding international arbitral awards and enforce them as judgments of its national courts. But does that mean the companies will get their money, or not?

We wrote about the case of Eiser Infrastructure Ltd and Energia Solar Luxembourg SARL v Kingdom of Spain (Eiser) last year before the judgment came out.

An ICSID arbitration tribunal found that Spain breached its obligations to provide renewables rebates to foreign investors under the European Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), and ordered Spain to pay $205 million. In a later ICSID award by another tribunal Spain was also ordered to pay two other solar companies a total of $170 million.