UK Court sets aside arbitral award and declares Tribunal has jurisdiction based on Kazakhstan’s implied succession to Investment Treaty concluded by the USSR

In a judgment delivered on 15 December 2021, the England and Wales High Court (“the Court”) in Gold Pool JV Ltd v Republic of Kazakhstan [2021] EWHC 3422 (Comm) found that Canada and Kazakhstan – as a successor state of the USSR in respect of its territory – had through words and conduct agreed that the 1989 Agreement for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments between Canada and the USSR (“the FIPA”) would continue in force between them.