Alberto Carrizosa Gelzis, Enrique Carrizosa Gelzis, Felipe Carrizosa Gelzis v. Republic of Colombia
PCA · Investment (ICSID and treaty) · Colombia · 7 May 2021
Why it matters
This case reaffirms the customary international law principle that a dual national cannot sue its own state in investor-state arbitration. The tribunal applied a holistic, fact-intensive dominant and effective nationality test, emphasizing long-term residence, family ties, and business interests in the respondent state. It also awarded substantial costs against the claimants, signaling that speculative claims may attract cost sanctions.
Summary
Three brothers, Alberto, Felipe, and Enrique Carrizosa Gelzis, were born in the United States to Colombian parents. They acquired US citizenship at birth and later Colombian nationality by descent. In 1998, Colombian authorities took measures against a bank (Granahorrar) in which the Carrizosa family held shares. After years of domestic litigation, the brothers initiated arbitration against Colombia under the US-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, claiming that the measures expropriated their investment. Colombia objected to jurisdiction, arguing that the claimants were Colombian nationals and thus could not sue their own state under international law. The tribunal, seated in London, applied the dominant and effective nationality test from customary international law. It examined the claimants' entire lives: they grew up in Colombia, attended school there, returned after studying abroad, ran the family business in Bogotá for decades, raised families there, and maintained only occasional ties to the US. The tribunal found that their connections to Colombia were far stronger and that their US nationality was not dominant. It upheld Colombia's objection and dismissed the claims. The tribunal also ordered the claimants to pay all arbitration costs and a substantial portion of Colombia's legal fees, noting that the claim was an attempt to circumvent the long-standing principle that a state cannot be sued by its own nationals in an international forum.
The detail
Parties: Alberto Carrizosa Gelzis, Enrique Carrizosa Gelzis, Felipe Carrizosa Gelzis v. Republic of Colombia
Case number: PCA Case No. 2018-56
Outcome: Respondent's objection to jurisdiction ratione personae upheld; Tribunal lacks jurisdiction. Claimants ordered to pay US$350,000 in arbitration costs and US$1,476,861.79 in legal costs.
Quantum: US$1,826,861.79
Applicable law: US-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement; UNCITRAL Rules; customary international law on dominant and effective nationality
Issues in play: The principle that a dual national cannot bring an investment claim against a state of which it is a national (Article 25(2)(a) of the ICSID Convention, applied by analogy) collided with the claimants' assertion that their dominant and effective nationality was that of the United States, not Colombia.
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