<i>Deripaska v Montenegro</i>: the alpha and omega of State succession to BITs

Abstract This article examines the Deripaska v Montenegro case. I will discuss the award’s two most significant findings on fundamental issues of State succession. First, the Tribunal affirmed that there exists no rule of automatic succession whereby a new State is ipso facto bound by bilateral treaties, including BITs, to which the predecessor State was a party before independence. Second, the Tribunal explained that succession to a BIT is possible based on an express agreement by the parties and, when some conditions are met, by tacit consent from them. The reasoning of the Tribunal on these two points will have long lasting consequences on future arbitration cases.