Arbitration — Applicable law — Relation between concession contract, bilateral investment treaty and ICSID Convention — Dispute with provincial authorities relating to interpretation and application of contract to be submitted to administrative courts

Economics, trade and finance — Bilateral investment treaty — Argentina-France bilateral investment treaty, Article 8(2) — “Fork in the road” provision — Relevance to Tribunal’s jurisdiction over treaty claim — Relevance to merits of claim

Arbitration — Jurisdiction — Jurisdiction issue joined to merits — Failure to designate or consent to application of ICSID Convention to province under Article 25(1) and (3) does not deprive Tribunal of jurisdiction — Local forum clause in concession contract does not divest Tribunal of jurisdiction for claims against State

State responsibility — Imputability — Attribution of responsibility for actions of political subdivisions — Responsibility not limited by federal or decentralized character of State — No factual basis for attribution — State’s obligation under bilateral investment treaty to pursue in good faith and with reasonable efforts the resolution of the dispute — State’s constructive role in renegotiation process

Relationship of international law and municipal law — Impossibility of separating claims for breaches of contract from bilateral investment treaty violation without prior resort to administrative courts — Claimant required under contract to assert its rights in proceedings before administrative courts prior to invoking ICSID procedure — Claimant not precluded from asserting its rights in administrative courts — No evidence that courts lacked independence or fairness or would have denied claimant’s rights procedurally or substantively — No principle of exhaustion of remedies

Claims — Exhaustion of local remedies — Requirement incompatible with Article 8 of bilateral investment treaty and Article 26 of ICSID Convention — Resort to administrative courts required under contract for purposes of interpretation and application