1. This claim is brought by Hochtief Aktiengesellschaft, a company incorporated in the Federal Republic of Germany (“Hochtief”), against the Argentine Republic (‘Argentina’), under the Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Argentina for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments, dated 9 April 1991 (‘the BIT’).

2. Hochtief and Argentina, the parties to the dispute and to this case, are referred to in this Decision as the (lower-case) ‘parties’. Argentina and Germany, as the States Parties to the BIT, are referred to as the (capitalized) ‘Parties’.

3. The authentic German and Spanish texts of the BIT, together with the English translation published in the United Nations Treaty Series1, are set out in Appendix I to this Decision. This Decision will refer to the English-language translation. The Tribunal has, however, taken full account of the fact that the authentic languages of the BIT are German and Spanish, and as will be seen it has at various stages reverted to the authentic texts where the translation is unsatisfactory.

4. The claim arises from a dispute concerning a 25-year concession awarded to Hochtief and a consortium of construction companies in 1997 for the construction, maintenance and operation of a toll road and several bridges in Argentina between the cities of Rosario and Victoria. Hochtief and other members of the consortium incorporated a company, Puentes del Litoral SA (‘PdL’), in Argentina in order to implement the concession. Hochtief owns 26% of the shares in PdL. Hochtief claims that it was injured by actions taken by Argentina in breach of its obligations under the BIT and under customary international law.