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Law No. 39 Of 27 May 1996 Ratification Of The Agreement Between Romania And The Republic Of Bolivia Concerning The Reciprocal Promotion And Protection Of Investments, Signed In Bucharest On 9 October 1995

Original Language Title:  LEGE nr. 39 din 27 mai 1996 pentru ratificarea Acordului dintre România şi Republica Bolivia privind promovarea şi protejarea reciprocă a investiţiilor, semnat la Bucureşti la 9 octombrie 1995

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LEGE No. 39 of 27 May 1996 for the ratification of the Agreement between Romania and the Republic of Bolivia on the promotion and mutual protection of investments, signed in Bucharest on 9 October 1995
ISSUER PARLIAMENT
Published in OFFICIAL MONITOR NO. 111 of 30 May 1996



The Romanian Parliament adopts this law + Article UNIC The Agreement between Romania and the Republic of Bolivia on the promotion and mutual protection of investments, signed in Bucharest on 9 October 1995, is ratified. This law was adopted by the Senate at its meeting on February 13, 1996, in compliance with the provisions of art 74 74 para. (2) of the Romanian Constitution. p. SENATE PRESIDENT ION SOLCANU This law was adopted by the Chamber of Deputies at its meeting on May 13, 1996, in compliance with the provisions of 74 74 para. (2) of the Romanian Constitution. CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES PRESIDENT ADRIAN NASTASE + AGREEMENT between Romania and the Republic of Bolivia, on the promotion and protection of investment Romania and the Republic of Bolivia, hereinafter the Contracting Parties, wanting to enhance the economic cooperation between both states, intended to create and maintain favourable conditions for the investment of the investor of a Contracting Party involving the transfer of capital into the territory of the other Contracting Party, recognising that the promotion and mutual protection of investment, in accordance with this Agreement, will contribute to the stimulation of the economic prosperity of both States, aware of the need to establish an appropriate legal framework to regulate and guarantee the mutual promotion and protection of investment between both countries, agree on the following: + Article 1 Definitions For purposes of this Agreement: 1. The term investment refers to all categories of assets or rights in connection with an investment, provided that it is carried out in accordance with the laws and regulations in force of the Contracting Party whose territory has been made the investment and will include, in particular: a) proprietary rights to movable and immovable property, as well as other real rights; b) shares, shares and any other kind of participation in companies in the territory of any of the Contracting Parties; c) reinvestment of benefits; d) claim rights or any other performance which has economic value, the loans being included only if they are directly linked to a specific investment; e) intellectual property rights, including copyright and industrial property rights; f) concessions authorized by law, including concessions for prospecting, exploration, extraction, exploitation and industrialization of natural resources. Any change in the legal form in which the assets and assets have been invested or reinvested shall not affect their investment character in accordance with this Agreement. 2. The term investor shall designate, for each Contracting Party, the following subjects making investments in the territory of the other Contracting Party, in accordance with this Agreement: a) natural persons who, in accordance with the legislation of a Contracting Party, are regarded as its citizens, as regards Romania, and its nationals, as regards the Republic of Bolivia; b) legal persons constituted in accordance with the legislation of a Contracting Party, which have their seat and the main economic activities in the territory of that Contracting Party c) legal persons constituted in accordance with the legislation of any country, which are controlled in the majority by the investors mentioned in lett. a) and b) of this paragraph. 3. The term income shall mean all the amounts produced by an investment, namely: profits, dividends, interest, royalties and similar. 4. The territory shall designate: -as regards Romania, the territory of Romania, including the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone over which Romania exercises, in accordance with national law and international law, sovereignty, sovereign rights or jurisdiction; --as regards the Republic of Bolivia, the entire space subject to the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the Republic of Bolivia, in accordance with its domestic and international law. + Article 2 Promoting and protecting investments 1. Each Contracting Party shall promote and create on its territory favourable conditions for the investments of investors of the other Contracting Party and shall authorise such investments, in accordance with its laws and regulations. 2. Each Contracting Party shall grant, in accordance with its laws and regulations, the protection and guarantees provided for in this Agreement for the investments made, on its territory, by the investors of the other Contracting Party. 3. Each Contracting Party, in accordance with its laws and regulations, will allow investors of the other Contracting Party to hire leading and technically specialized personnel, of their choice and regardless of nationality, in what concerns Romania, and of nationality, with regard to the Republic of Bolivia. Also, the contracting parties, in accordance with the provisions of their legislation, will allow the investors of the other contracting party to enter and stay on their territory, in order to carry out and manage their investment. 4. Each Contracting Party shall guarantee the investors of the other Contracting Party free access to courts, courts, administrative agencies and other bodies exercising judicial authority. 5. Each Contracting Party shall publish and disseminate the laws and regulations relating to the investments of investors of the other Contracting Party + Article 3 Investment treatment 1. Each Contracting Party shall guarantee fair and equitable treatment, in its territory, to the investments of investors of the other Contracting Party and shall ensure that the exercise of the rights recognised by this Agreement is not Violated. 2. Each Contracting Party shall grant investment to investors of the other Contracting Party, carried out on its territory, a treatment no less favourable than that granted to the investments of its own investors or investors of a third State if the latter treatment is more favourable. 3. If a Contracting Party has granted special advantages to investors of any third States, by virtue of an agreement on the creation of a free trade zone, customs unions, common markets, economic unions or any other form of organization regional economic, or by virtue of an agreement on, in whole or in the main part, tax matters, that contracting party will not be obliged to grant the said benefits to the investors of the other Contracting Party. + Article 4 Expropriation and indemnity 1. Neither of the Contracting Parties shall adopt measures to deprive, directly or indirectly, an investor of the other Contracting Party of its investment, unless the following conditions are met: a) the measures are adopted for the cause of public utility or national interest and in accordance with the law; b) the measures are not discriminatory; c) the measures are accompanied by provisions on the payment without delay of adequate and effective compensation. 2. The compensation will be based on the market value of the affected investments, at a date immediately prior to the one to which the measure becomes known publicly. If the determination of this value is difficult, the compensation can be determined, in accordance with the generally recognised valuation principles as equitable, taking into account the size of the invested capital, the devaluation to the latter, the repatriated capital up to that date, the replacement value and other relevant factors. As a result of any delay in payment of compensation will be added interest, at a commercial rate established on the basis of market value, starting from the date of expropriation or loss, until the date of payment. The amount of compensation, including interest, if applicable, will be paid to the investor in freely convertible currency. 3. With regard to the legality of nationalization, expropriation or any other measure that has the equivalent effect, and regarding the amount of compensation, the affected investor will be able to advertise this to the courts in the judicial procedure and submit it the legal order in force of the contracting party adopting the measure of expropriation or making the compensation effective. 4. Investors of any Contracting Party, whose investments in the territory of the other Contracting Party suffer losses due to a war or any other armed conflict, a state of national necessity, civil unrest or other similar events in the territory of the other contracting party, will have to receive from the latter, as reparation, indemnity, indemnity or other arrangement, a treatment no less favourable than that granted by it contracting party to its own investors or to any third country. Payments that could result in this title will be made in freely convertible currency. + Article 5 Free transfer 1. Each contracting party shall authorise, without delay, the investors of the other contracting party, the transfer of funds resulting from investments, in freely convertible currency, in particular of: a) interest, dividends, profits and other benefits, after payment of taxes established by the laws and regulations of the contracting parties; b) reimbursement of external loans in connection with an investment; c) the amounts obtained from the total or partial sale or the liquidation of an investment; d) payments resulting from the regulation of a dispute and compensation, in accordance with art. IV. 2. Transfers shall be carried out at the exchange rate applicable on the market at the date of transfer, in accordance with the laws and regulations of the Contracting Party which admitted the + Article 6 Subrogation 1. If a contracting party or body authorized by it has entered into an insurance contract or granted any other financial guarantee against non-commercial risks, in connection with an investment of one of its investors on the territory the other Contracting Party, the latter shall recognise the right of the first Contracting Party to subrogate itself to the rights of the investor, if it has made a payment by virtue of those established by the said contract or guarantee. 2. If a contracting party has paid its investor and by virtue of this payment has assumed its rights and obligations, that investor will not be able to advertise to the other contracting party these rights and obligations, without authorization express the first Contracting Party and whenever these rights and obligations are effective and legally recognised by the other Contracting Party. + Article 7 Consultations The Contracting Parties shall consult on any matter relating to the application or interpretation of this Agreement. + Article 8 Regulation of disputes between Contracting Parties 1. The differences between the Contracting Parties, relating to the interpretation and application of this Agreement, shall be resolved, as far as possible, by direct negotiations. 2. If both Contracting Parties have not been able to reach an agreement within 6 months from the date of notification of the dispute, it shall be subject, at the request of any of the Contracting Parties, to an arbitral tribunal. This court will be made up of three members, with each contracting party having to designate a referee within two months of receiving the request for arbitration, and these two arbitrators will have to designate a president, who will be national of a Third State, within two months of their appointment. 3. If one of the Contracting Parties has not appointed its arbitrator and has not complied with the request of the other Contracting Party to make the appointment within a period of two months from the date of notification of the request for arbitration, the arbitrator shall be appointed that Contracting Party, by the President of the International Court of Justice. 4. If the two arbitrators cannot reach an agreement on the election of the President, within two months of their designation, it shall be designated, at the request of either of the Contracting Parties, by the President of the International Court of Justice. 5. If, in the cases referred to in paragraphs 3 and 4 of this article, the President of the International Court of Justice is prevented from fulfilling this function or if it is national of one of the Contracting Parties, the designation will have to be made by the Vice-President and if the latter is prevented from doing it or if it is a national of one of the Contracting Parties, the next Member of the International Court of Justice as a function and not national of one of the Parties contracting will have to make the appointment. 6. The President of the arbitral tribunal shall be national of a third State with which both Contracting Parties maintain diplomatic relations. 7. The arbitral tribunal will have to adopt its decision by a majority of votes. Regarding all other aspects, the arbitral tribunal procedure will be determined by him. 8. The arbitral award will be final, irrevocable and binding on the contracting parties. 9. Each Contracting Party shall bear the expenses of the member designated by it, as well as the expenses of its representation in the arbitration proceedings; the expenses of the President and the other expenses shall be borne in equal parts by those two Contracting Parties. + Article 9 Regulation of disputes between a Contracting Party and an investor of the other Contracting Party 1. The differences occurring in the context of this agreement between one of the Contracting Parties and an investor of the other Contracting Party, which has made investments in the territory of the first one, shall be settled, as far as possible, amicably. 2. If a solution is not reached by these consultations within a period of 6 months from the date of the regulatory request, the investor will be able to submit the dispute: a) the competent court of the contracting party on whose territory the investment was made; or b) international arbitration of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Relative Differences (C.I.R.D.I.), created by the Convention on the Settlement of Relative Differences in Investments between States and Persons of Other States, signed in Washington on 18 March 1965; or c) an arbitral tribunal "ad hoc", constituted in accordance with the arbitration rules of the United Nations Commission for International Commercial Law (UNCITRAL). 3. If the investor has submitted the dispute to the competent court of the contracting party on whose territory the investment or arbitral tribunal has been made, the choice of one of the proceedings will be final. 4. By the effect of this article, any legal person, which was constituted in accordance with the laws and regulations of one of the contracting parties and whose actions, prior to the appearance of the dispute, are held, in the majority, by the investors of the other Contracting Party shall be treated as a legal person of the other Contracting Party. 5. The arbitral award will be final, irrevocable and binding on both Contracting Parties. Each Contracting Party shall execute it in accordance with its laws and regulations. 6. The contracting parties will not be able to treat, on diplomatic channels, the problems related to disputes subject to judicial proceedings or international arbitration, in accordance with the provisions of this article, until the conclusion of the procedures in question, with the exception of the situation in which the other party to the dispute did not carry out the judicial decision or the decision of the arbitral tribunal, within the time limits laid down in + Article 10 Scope of application This Agreement shall apply to investments made before and after the entry into force of the Agreement by the investors of a Contracting Party in accordance with the legal provisions of the other Contracting Party in the latter's territory. However, he will not apply to differences or controversies that have previously occurred to his entry into force. + Article 11 Application of other legal rules 1. If, in the future, the contracting party on whose territory an investment was made by an investor of the other contracting party will promulgate legal norms that will grant a more favorable treatment than that provided for by this Agreement for foreign investments on its territory, these provisions shall prevail over this Agreement, in so far as they are more favourable. 2. Also, if the contracting parties conclude between them conventions containing more favourable legal norms for investments in the territory or investors of the other contracting party, the provisions of those conventions shall be prevail over those contained in this agreement. + Article 12 Final provisions 1. This Agreement shall enter into force 30 days after the date on which the Contracting Parties have notified each other of the fulfilment of the legal requirements necessary to enter into force of the Agreement. 2. This agreement will remain in force for a period of 10 years and will be automatically extended for equal periods, if one of the contracting parties will not denounce it by a written notification a year before the expiry date of the validity period. 3. Provisions of art. I-XI of this agreement will remain in force for a further period of 10 years, starting with its expiry date, for the investments previously made to this data. As for which, the undersigned, fully authorized by the respective governments, have signed this agreement. Concluded in Bucharest on October 9, 1995, in two copies, in Romanian, Spanish and English, all texts being equally authentic. In case of differences in interpretation, the English text will prevail. For Romania, Florin Georgescu, minister of state, minister of finance The Republic of Bolivia, Antonio Aranibar Quiroga, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Religious -------------------------