Jurisdiction of Arbitral Tribunal in Yukos Oil Case

In 2005, the majority shareholders who collectively owned over 70% of the shares in Yukos Oil Company initiated three arbitration proceedings against the Russian Federation administered under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) and UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. In the arbitration, the claimants complained of arbitrary, unfair and discriminatory treatment, and an unlawful expropriation of the company by the Russian Federation. In response, the Russian Federation, initially, put forwarded jurisdictional objections regarding its inability to apply ECT context provisionally, especially Article 26 about settlement of disputes.
On 30 November 2009 the arbitral tribunal issued an interim award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility and upheld its jurisdiction to hear the three cases. Finally, on 18 July 2014, the tribunal ordered the Russian Federation to pay damages in excess of USD 50 billion to the majority shareholders of Yukos Oil Company. This is by far the largest award ever rendered by an arbitral tribunal.
The tribunal in the awards analyzed some main issues in investment dispute settlements which it has much to teach us in that regard. Thus, the principal aim of this article is to critically analyze the arbitral Award concerning the provisional application of ECT and other jurisdictional objections raised by Russian Federation.