On October 7, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued the mandate on its opinion affirming the judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia confirming Chevron’s $96 million arbitral award against Ecuador. In so doing, the Court held that, under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), it is sufficient for the plaintiff to show that there is an arbitration agreement and an arbitral award to invoke the arbitration exception to sovereign immunity. This decision also brings the D.C. Circuit in line with the growing consensus of federal circuits that afford substantial deference to an arbitral tribunal’s jurisdictional determinations where a state has agreed in a treaty to arbitrate disputes under arbitral rules empowering a tribunal with “competence-competence,” or the competence to decide its own jurisdiction.

The D.C. Circuit issued its opinion on August 4, 2015. On September 3, 2015, Ecuador filed petitions for panel and en banc rehearing of the case. The D.C. Circuit denied the petitions on September 28, 2015, and issued its mandate on October 7, 2015, finally terminating the appellate court’s jurisdiction over the matter.