World Investment and Political Risk 2013

Breach of contract is a hot topic in risk management, especially in the context of Public-Private Partnerships for large utility, infrastructure, or mineral resource exploitation projects around the world. Some claims are related to economic crisis, but more often disputes arise from political change, privatisation reviews, environmental regulations and governance/corruption issues. Some recent high profile cases involving government tariff renegotiations and award settlements underline the importance of this topic for international investors. Claims of breach of contract often bring about an abrupt termination of activities or force contract renegotiations that substantially alter the original terms of the deal and projected financial validity.

This study offers significant new data and analysis to allow an informed assessment of current developments and underlying trends, in a new collaboration between the World Bank Group (IBRD, MIGA, and ICSID) and Washington University in St. Louis.