The Italian-Turkish BIT

Bilateral investment treaties (BIT) are international agreements providing the terms, conditions and protections for private investment by individuals and entities of a contracting State (the home State) in the other Contracting State (the host State).

The proliferation of BITs at the turn of the 20th century has transformed the international investment environment, as they represent a crucial element of globalization.

As far as it is known, approximately 3,000 BITs were signed, and more than 2,000 are in force.

Italy is a party to 102 BITs (and 77 treaties with investment provisions, including the EU treaties).  Turkiye is a party to 132 BITs (and 22 treaties with investment provisions).

On 22 March 1995, Italy and Turkiye signed their BIT, which entered into force on 2 March 2004.  Its English text is available here.

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A Case Study on the Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in Turkey: Document production v. Confidentiality

Turkey has taken significant steps in becoming an arbitration-friendly jurisdiction over the past decade. Nevertheless, we observe that the foreign arbitral award enforcement proceedings in Turkey are being subject to a more detailed review than other arbitration-friendly jurisdictions on a comparative basis.

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Mind the steps! Multi-tiered arbitration clauses

A multi-tiered arbitration resolution clause is, in its simplest form, the methodology agreed by the parties that has “multi-tiers” before resorting to the final dispute resolution method.

In practice, we see these multi-tiers before finally resorting to arbitration as initially resorting to various ADR methods, such as negotiation, mediation or expert determination. In this case, the parties should undertake certain steps prior to commencing arbitration in an attempt to amicably settle a dispute before resorting to arbitration.

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Compulsory Use of the Turkish Language in Economic Enterprises

The Law No. 805 On the Compulsory Use of the Turkish Language in Economic Enterprises (“Law No. 805“) came into effect on 1926 and had been one of the most debated regulations in terms of its procedural power.

The Law sets forth that the Turkish companies and enterprises are under the obligation to use the Turkish language in all transactions, agreements, correspondences, accounts and books. The application of the law does not cover the contracts that are to be performed outside of Turkey.

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Impartiality of a sole arbitrator v. nationality in ICC Rules of Arbitration – A Turkish law take on the issue

This brief study addresses the Turkish Law take on the impartiality (for the purposes of this study, impartiality includes the term neutrality as well) of a sole arbitrator and its effects on the enforcement of an ICC award before the Turkish courts.

The study relates to the decision of the 11th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation dated 3 December 2016.

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