The COVID pandemic has brought a fresh wave of investor-state arbitration cases against countries in Latin America—the region most frequently targeted for that type of last-resort dispute resolution.

Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for more than a quarter of claims filed with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)—more than Africa, Asia or any other region—as a record number of investors sought remedy in 2020 at the World Bank’s arbitration venue.