Court’s determination:
11. It is common ground herein that the ILC Articles do constitute
customary international law. This position was stated in the
case of Noble Ventures Inc. vs. Romania ICSID Case No.
ARB/01/11, 2005, to which this Court was referred by learned
Counsel for the Applicant.
12. In that case, a State-owned enterprise was divested to Noble
Ventures Inc. by the Romanian State Ownership Fund (SOF), a
public institution with legal personality that was responsible
for the implementation of the Romanian Government’s
privatization
program.
The
privatization
agreement
between Noble Ventures Inc. and SOF was grounded in an
underlying bilateral investment treaty
(BIT)
between
Romania
and the United States of America (USA). Six
months after the conclusion of the privatization transaction
there was a change of Government in Romania, SOF was
replaced by the Authority for the Privatisation and
Management of the State Ownership (APAPS) and Noble
Ventures
Inc. encountered a series of operational
problems arising from SOF’s alleged derogation of its
commitments
under
the
privatization
agreements.
NobleVentures Inc. sought to hold Romania responsible for
SOF’s conduct, contending that it amounted to breach by
Romania of its obligations under the BIT. It was held:
“As States are juridical persons, one always has to raise
the question whether acts committed by natural
persons who are allegedly in violation of international
law are attributable to a State. The BIT does not provide
any answer to this question. The rules of attribution can
only be found in general international law which
supplements the BIT in this respect. Regarding general
REFERENCE No. 10 OF 2013
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