The Russian Federation (defendant/appellant) v Hulley Enterprises Ltd & ors (claimants/respondents)
Wednesday 15 January 2025
By Appellant’s Notice filed on 20 November 2023, this is an appeal against the Judgment of Mrs Justice Cockerill, sitting in the Commercial Court, dated 1 November 2023.
Cockerill J heard the trial of two preliminary issues arising out of a longstanding and complex dispute between the Defendant (the Russian Federation) (RF) and the Claimants, who are the former majority shareholders in OAO Yukos Oil Company (“Yukos”).
The manifestation of that dispute is enforcement of arbitral awards of some US$50 billion plus compound interest accruing at some US$2.5 million dollars a day (“the Awards”). These Awards resulted from determinations of a Tribunal of well known international arbitrators that (i) they had jurisdiction to hear a claim brought by the Claimants for breach of the RF’s obligations under Article 13(1) of a treaty called the Energy Charter Treaty (“the ECT”); (b) the Claimants’ allegations of breach (via unlawful expropriation via tax demands and bankruptcy proceedings) were well-founded; and (c) the RF was liable to pay the Claimants more than US$50 billion in damages.
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