In Interocean Oil Development Company and Interocean Oil Exploration Company v Federal Republic of Nigeria (ICSID Case No. ARB/13/20), in a decision on preliminary objections, an ICSID tribunal rejected several of the respondents objections to jurisdiction and joined others to the merits stage of the proceedings.

On 31 July 2015, the EU Council Recommendations on Promoting the use of and sharing of best practices on cross-border videoconferencing in the area of justice in the Member States and at EU level (2015/C 250/01) were published. The recommendations recognise that videoconferencing is a useful tool with great potential in cross-border situations involving different member states and even third countries.

The Australian government has published a Statement to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties Inquiry into the Free Trade Agreement between the Government of Australia and the Government of the People’s Republic of China. The statement includes a comment on the FTA’s investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism.