Originally from American Review of International Arbitration - ARIA

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KEYNOTE LUNCHEON PRESENTATION:
REPRESENTATION OF STATE PARTIES IN INVESTMENT
ARBITRATION
Mariano Gomezperalta Casali∗
Presiding Officer: Alan R. Crain, Jr.∗∗
 

Alan Crain: I’m particularly pleased to have the honor of introducing our
luncheon speaker, Mariano Gomezperalta. Most recently Mariano was the General
Counsel of Mexico’s Ministry of the Economy where he represented the
government of Mexico in a wide variety of situations, including representations
before the WTO, in connection with NAFTA matters, and a wide range of
international trade matters, investment issues, including several investor-state
arbitrations and several state-to-state arbitrations. He has also handled a wide
range of litigation for the government in Mexican courts. Prior to that he had a
significant background in a number of areas, including his expertise in structured
finance in international trade, including representing the Export Import Bank of
the United States. He holds law degrees from Harvard University as well as
UNAM in Mexico. And he has a degree in Economics as well, and is licensed to
practice both in the state of New York and Mexico. And invited here to speak in
Texas notwithstanding. Please join me in welcoming Mariano Gomezperalta.

Mariano Gomezperalta.: Thank you. I’d like to thank the University of Texas
School of Law Center for Global Energy, International Arbitration and
Environmental Law for inviting me to this conference. As you have probably
heard from the introduction, I’m no longer in the position of General Counsel in
Mexico’s Ministry of the Economy. I left the Ministry a few weeks ago, so I’m
particularly grateful with the conference organizers that they decided not to
withdraw the invitation. It has been a great opportunity for me to learn from all
the excellent presentations throughout yesterday and today. I’m quite glad and
honored to be given the opportunity to talk about representation of state parties
and my view as former General Counsel of Mexico’s Ministry of the Economy.
As some of you know, the GC office in Mexico is in charge of representing the
government before arbitral tribunals established pursuant to investment chapters
in free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties, and other disputes such
as state-to-state disputes before the World Trade Organization.

The opportunity I was given to serve as General Counsel was an incredible
experience not only from a legal standpoint but also in terms of dealing with other