CYIL 2015

THE HIGHEST AMOUNTS OF JUST SATISFACTION…

3. Analysis of the awards As we see in all the top judgments, the Court declared a violation of the right to property under A 1 P-1. The second most frequent type of violation concerns the fair trial guarantees as envisaged by Article 6 of the Convention. It is possible to conclude that such huge amounts of award were based on the initial capital of the companies in question. The higher the amount of property deprived, the higher is the sum awarded by the Court. From the table it is also clear that the majority of judgments are given in cases against so called ‘new member states’, who became party to the Convention in the 1990s, namely Russia, Ukraine and Moldova. Although, before ratification of this treaty by the mentioned states, namely, in 1987, the highest amount of compensation was claimed by a Greek company. It is also true that, except for the Stran Greek Refineries , most of the judgments were issued in the last seven years. Moreover, in this judicial decision the just satisfaction was awarded to an individual and the legal persons together. Consequently, it is not clear what amount was paid to the latter. Not all of the applicants were domestic companies. For example, in the case of East West Alliance against Ukraine , 50 an Irish company lodged the application with the Court. Similarly, in Unistar Ventures GmbH case , 51 as can be seen from the title, a German company filed the submission. In the case of Uniya OOO and Belcourt Trading Company v. Russia, 52 there were two applicant companies. The first was Uniya OOO, registered in Alsheyvskiy District, Bashkortostan, under Russian law, and the second was a foreign company, Belcourt Trading Company. It was originally registered in the Republic of Ireland and then in the state of Delaware, USA, and subsequently in Belize City, Belize. The final award concerned only the second company, as the first one had ceased to exist. Based on this observation, we may speak of a so-called protection of foreign investors by means of the Convention system. This is also true for the Yukos case, 53 where many natural persons from abroad were among the shareholders of the company who received the just satisfaction award. In respect of the interrelationship between claims and just satisfaction awards, it may be seen from the table that the awarded amount constitutes from 0.5% to 95% of the claimed compensation. The data are imprecise, as in respect of some awards it was very difficult, or even impossible, to make the necessary calculation. For example, in the already mentioned case of Stran Greek Refineries , 54 the award was set forth in a number of different currencies and to convert all of them into euros is impossible, because the award was made in 1997, when the euro did not exist in

50 East West Alliance Limited, cited above. 51 Unistar Ventures GmbH, cited above. 52 Uniya OOO and Belcourt Trading Company, cited above. 53 OAO Neftyanaya Kompaniya Yukos (just satisfaction) , cited above. 54 Stran Greek Refineries, cited above.

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