Arbitration In Public-Private Alliances – Challenges For Its Application

The Law on Incentives for Public-Private Alliances ("PPA Law")¹ and its regulations ("PPA Regulations")² include provisions approving local and international arbitration as a means for dispute resolution in relation to PPA contracts.  Specifically, I will make reference to Article 20 of the Law and Articles 19, 20, 21 and 22 of the Regulations.

Those provisions, however, raise doubts about the feasibility of the arbitral system and its application within the scope of PPA contracts.

In this paper we will refer specifically to (i) exclusions with respect to arbitrable issues, and (ii) the requirement to exhaust the administrative channels. This paper only refers to the arbitral mechanism deriving from a PPA contract and sets aside any possible claims deriving from bilateral investment treaties.