Latham & Watkins Secures Another Significant Victory for the Republic of Croatia

Latham is pleased to announce a significant victory on behalf of the Republic of Croatia in an investment treaty claim relating to a proposed development of luxury villas, hotels, and golf courses in a location overlooking the World Heritage Site of the Old City of Dubrovnik. The case, which was brought under the Croatia-Israel BIT, involved an attempt by Mr. Ahron G. Frenkel to re-litigate claims that had previously been adjudicated and dismissed in a prior ICSID arbitration brought by his project companies, Elitech B.V. and Razvoj Golf d.o.o., in which Latham successfully represented Croatia.

The majority of the ICSID tribunal found that the claimant’s claims were inadmissible and barred on the grounds of res judicata and/or abuse of process. The majority upheld Croatia’s arguments that the claims brought by Mr. Frenkel were substantively identical to the claims dismissed in the Elitech case. In an important decision, the majority concluded that the triple identity test for res judicata had been satisfied for most claims brought by Mr. Frenkel and that it would, in any event, be an abuse of process to allow Mr. Frenkel, as the ultimate owner of Elitech and Razvoj Golf, to pursue the same claims that were previously dismissed.

The landmark decision, which upholds the integrity of the international arbitration process, is not only legally significant but has protected Croatia from the burden of defending duplicative claims on this matter.

Latham’s arbitration team was led by partner Charles Claypoole, Sebastian Seelmann-Eggebert, and associate Shreya Ramesh in London.