The Ministries of Environment and Industry and Commerce have announced that the Dominican Republic was able to present expert legal counsel and win its first commercial arbitrage case — that of Corona Materials (Walvis) v. Dominican Republic on 31 May 2016. The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) heard the case. The Arnold & Porter LLP law firm defended the DR, with lawyer Eduardo Jorge Prats providing expert local support on Dominican law. The country was being sued for US$100 million.
The dispute arose after the Ministry of Environment rejected a request made by Corona Materials (Walvis) for mining in the Majagual and Arroyo Barril areas in the municipality of Sanchez, in the northeastern province of Samana. The Ministry of Environment established that mining the Joama concession by Corona Materials was not environmentally viable. The company had planned to mine for aggregate material.
The company argued that they had received an initial preliminary approval from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. Nevertheless, during the arbitration it was established that this approval was conditional on a positive result in the environmental impact assessment of the project, which was not obtained.
http://mic.gob.do/media/21973/Expert%20Report%20of%20Eduardo%20Jorge%20Prats..pdf
http://www.eldinero.com.do/24152/del-castillo-resalta-importancia-para-rd-de-fallo-internacional-en-torno-al-dr-cafta/
