Hague Court; Russia Did Steal Yukos And Must Pay $50 Billion Damages

We’ve now got the arbitration decision in the Yukos case from the court in The Hague* and the essential finding is that Russia did in fact steal Yukos from its rightful owners, the shareholders of the company, and must pay $50 billion damages as a result. This is, obviously, by far the largest arbitration decision ever and we might, therefore, argue that this was also the largest theft ever. Over and above the joy at justice being done here there’s also a public policy point. There’s controversy over such arbitration courts being included in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership being negotiated at present: and this case shows exactly why those provisions are entirely and wholly justified.