Luis Alberto Erize

Born Buenos Aires, Argentina, January 1, 1946.

Education: School of Law, University of Buenos Aires (Lawyer, 1975).  Author of articles on environmental, insurance, banking and oil & gas law and corporate structures; “Environmental Policy and Administration related to Economical Development” (1st. Congress of Environmental Law and Administration, Buenos Aires, 1974); Lecturer at the “National Conference of Environmental Law”, organized by the Universidad de Belgrano Law School, August 1976.  Reporter at the IV World Congress of Water Resources, organized by the International Water Resources Association, Association Internationale des Ressources en Eau, International Water Resources Association, Buenos Aires, September, 1982. Author of: “Companies agreements as a condition for the accumulation of private capitals in centralized markets” (in energy, oil and gas matters), 1990, Revista IDEA (Institute for the Executives’ Development in Argentina); “Argentina’s Exploration Plan. The Return of Exploration Permits and Exploitation Concessions”, Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law, 1992; “Power Surge” (summary of the privatization process in the Argentine Republic in the energy sector), Hemisfile (Volume III, March, 1992), Institute of the Americas; “Argentine Legislation on Waste Generation and Disposal”; and “Privatization in Argentina. The Oil & Gas Sector”, for the Advanced International Law Institute: Investment and Trade with Emerging Economies, State Bar of Texas, 1993. Co-author of the Argentine statement in the 5th. World Congress of Insurance Law on Legal general principles of civil responsibility and governmental regulations on pollution -infringer’s responsibility-, 1978.  Lecturer on “Currency, payments and inflation”, 1990, and “The New Convertibility Law, its effects”, April 1991, at the Price Waterhouse & Co. Training Center. Lecturer on Argentina Oil & Gas exploration Plan Seminars on the legal aspects of the exploration permits and exploitation concessions, past and present, and on the development of the regulatory framework in Argentina for oil exploration and tax aspects, in road show conferences held by the Secretariat of Energy, Argentine Republic, on May, 1992 in Houston, Texas, U.S.A. and London, U.K.  Lecturer for Price Waterhouse International Petroleum Seminar on “The restructuring of Argentina’s Energy Sector”, Houston, 1992. Author and Lecturer of: “Future evolution of the Electric Energy Market towards more elaborate term contracts – Energy supply contracts with large customers”, presented at the Seminar “The Future of Electric Energy within the process of reconversion of the Argentine Electric Energy, organized by the Institute for International Research, April 1995;  “Demystification of Project Finance: legal aspects to have in consideration for a successful structuring” with a particular view to the financing of natural gas and electric energy projects, presented  at the Seminar on “Development and Financing of Energy Projects”, organized by the Institute for International Research, September, 1996.  President of the Seminar on “Financement of Infrastructure Projects” (Natural gas, electric energy, toll highways, public waters system, international bridges, etc), and author of “New Instruments for financing” (with a review of project financing of Natural gas pipelines, High Tension Electric Energy transmission lines, and other energy projects) in the same seminar, organized by the Institute for International Research, April, 1997.  Co-author of “Proposed Supplement to the regulatory framework of the Argentine Electric Energy Industry”, (addressing the interaction between the gas and the electric energy markets), presented at the first Gas and Electricity Congress for Latin America and the Caribbean, organized by the Argentine Oil & Gas Institute, the American Gas Association and the Society of Petroleum Engineers, in Bariloche, Argentina, April, 1997. Author of “Nuclear Energy and the Electric Energy Market”, for the International Bar Association, Vancouver Conference, September 1998 (IBA Website).  Author of “Natural gas in Argentina and in the Southern Cone”, describing the deregulated, open access, by-pass featured and unbundled Argentina natural gas network, and the impact on the same of the crisis induced by sovereign debt default and ensuing devaluation, with tariff freezes in the downstream and  the renegotiations of natural gas transport and distribution licenses (IBA  Annual Conference 2002 in Durban, South Africa, October 20-25, 2002) (IBA Website).  Author of “Argentina’s natural gas crisis, as a consequence of reregulation. Transition back to market rules?” for IBA Annual Conference 2004, San Francisco; “The Passage from Regulatory Changes to Creeping Expropriation: when it is deemed to happen (a case study)”, Biennial Conference of Section of Energy Law and Resources, IBA, Rome, 2006.  Lecturer at the Forum Seminar “The Protection of the Foreign Investor”, conference “The consequences and doctrine resulting from the annulment of the ICSID award in “Compañía de Aguas del Aconquija / Vivendi vs. República Argentina” (Buenos Aires, August, 2002).  Author of “The Protection of the Foreign Investments in the Argentine Republic”, published in La Ley, September 4, 2002; “The protection of investments in energy and international arbitration”, August 2003, presentation made for the Master degree program on the Electric Energy Market, Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires -I.T.B.A-.  Lecturer on “La restructuration du secteur gazier en Argentine” as well as of the oil sector, at the Third Executive Seminar “Effective transition to liberalisation of the energy sector reforms”, Aix-en-Provence, France, December 8-13, 2003, organized by the European Commission on the implementation of “Regional Energy under the Framework of the MEDA Regulation: Restructuring of energy companies” project. Author of “The foreign corporations: new requisites for the exercise of the investors’ rights”, published in La Ley, October 21, 2003. Presentation of “The protection of investments and the international arbitration”, August 2004 for the Argentine Council for the International Relationships (Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales –C.A.R.I.). Lecturer in the Seminar “Arbitral Awards” in the First International Commercial Arbitration Event”, organized by Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (UADE), in Buenos Aires, October, 2005.  Author of “La protección de inversiones y el arbitraje internacional” (the protection of investments and the international arbitration), published in Revista Internacional de Arbitraje Nº 11, June-December 2009, Bogotá, Colombia. Author of a chapter on Eminent Domain and Regulatory Changes, of the book Property and the Law in Energy and Natural Resources, edited by Aileen McHarg, Barry Barton, Adrian Bradbrook and Lee Godden, published by Oxford University Press,2010, addressing the main subjects of the discussion between international oil companies and governments on such subjects. Author of “Energía eléctrica en Argentina: diagnóstico de distorsión regulatoria con deficit de inversiones y una propuesta de crecimiento sostenible” (Electric Energy in Argentina: a diagnosis of regulatory distortion, investment deficit and a sustainable development proposal), published in RADEHM (Revista Argentina de Derecho de la Energía, Hidrocarburos y Minería) Nº 7, November-December 2015 – January 2016. Article on Argentina “Energy Disputes 2016”, to be published –in Getting the Deal Through.  He has participated as legal counsel in several international arbitrations, under the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Rules (and also in national arbitrations) such as the ones related with negotiations regarding joint operating agreements for the acquisition of one of the main groups of the construction industry and of major electric energy works and infrastructure, disputes on the application of first refusal rights clauses on Joint Operating Agreements or Uniones Transitorias de Empresas of Oil Companies, in some cases related with national or international claims before domestic or foreign court jurisdictions.  Legal Counsel on international claims under ICSID’s Arbitration by virtue of Bilateral Investment Treaties, in relation with disputes regarding production and transport of natural gas, generation of thermoelectric and hydroelectric energy, as well as in investments made in infrastructure (concessions of public systems of water supply); arbitrations related with the acquisition of corporations under the Argentine arbitration rules.  Arbitrator appointed by the International Court of Arbitration of the ICC in an international dispute regarding the acquisition of a corporation; co-arbitrator appointed by the International Court of Arbitration of the ICC for an international arbitration concerning pipelines, etc. Participant in the session Managing the outset of a complex, politically sensitive dispute – strategy decisions, in the ITA-CBAr Joint Conference on International Arbitration, Sao Paulo, Brazil, September 2008.  Speaker in the session Boundary Disputes of the ICDR/AIPN Conference on International Oil & Gas Dispute Resolution, Río de Janeiro, Brasil, October 2008.  Chair of the sessions on Energy Conflict Management in Latin America and Integration: What the government say, International Bar Association, Annual conference, Buenos Aires, Argentina, October 2008.  Oil & Gas Section Co-Chair of the session Nationalization of Oil and Gas Enterprises: New Trends and Strategies, and speaker of the session Energy Dispute Resolution in Latin America, at the Special Institute on International Mining and Oil & Gas Law, Development, and Investment, of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, Buenos Aires, April, 2009. Chair of the session on Liability of the grantor of the permits, concessions, PSAs or similar. The Acts of State and the emergency theory. Reasonableness, timing and other tests, International Bar Association, Annual conference, Madrid, October 2009. Council Officer of the Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law (SEERIL) (since October 2004). Vice Chair of the Oil & Gas Committee of the Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law (SEERIL) (2006-2008). Chair of the Oil and Gas Law Committee at the International Bar Association (2009-2010).  Consultant Member of C.A.R.I. (Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales). Adjunct Professor of Constitutional Law, School of Law and Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires (1976-1987). Member of the International Council of Environmental Law, Bonn, Germany. Secretary to the Executive Board for the Argentine Association regarding the Law and the Administration of Environment and Natural Resources (1977-1987). Member of the Task Force for the issuance of the Report Trade and Investment Rules for Energy, World Energy Council, 2009. Luis Erize is on the list of energy specialized arbitrators of the International Centre for Dispute Resolutions. 

Languages: Spanish, English, French and Italian.