South American Silver Limited v. Bolivia, UNCITRAL, PCA Case No. 2013-15, Procedural Order No. 6 (April 21, 2015)
I. Introduction
1. On March 31, 2015, the Plurinational State of Bolivia (“Bolivia” or “Respondent”) submitted its Objections to Jurisdiction, Admissibility and Counter-Memorial on the Merits (“Counter-Memorial”), in accordance with Procedural Order No. 1 and Procedural Order No. 5.
2. On April 14, 2015, the Tribunal addressed the Parties to inform them of the amendments made to the procedural calendar, as a result of the modification of the date for the submission by the Respondent of its Counter-Memorial. The Parties were invited to submit their comments on the new calendar.
3. On April 17, 2015, the Tribunal received the following communications from the Parties:
a. A letter from South American Silver Limited (“SAS” or “Claimant”) acknowledging receipt of the amended procedural calendar and agreeing to the revised calendar. Claimant reserved its rights to seek an extension of any of those time periods, as necessary, in order to reflect prior extensions obtained by Respondent.
b. A letter from Bolivia opposing to the amended calendar because, in its view, it affected Bolivia’s right to due process and contained formal mistakes. Bolivia argued that given the manner the calendar was established in Procedural Order No. 1, Claimant would have 238 days from the receipt of Bolivia’s Counter-Memorial to prepare its Reply, whereas Respondent would only have 90 days from the receipt of Claimant’s Reply to prepare its Rejoinder. According to Bolivia, this situation is contrary to the principle of equality of arms and violates its right to due process. In addition, Bolivia alleged that establishing fixed deadlines at this point was premature since there was no certainty that the Document Production Phase would effectively last 148 days, as envisioned by Procedural Order No. 1.