Hagia Sophia at ICSID? The Limits of Sovereign Discretion

Following a court decision on July 10, 2020, the Turkish authorities revoked the status of Istanbul's 6th century iconic cathedral, the Hagia Sophia, turning the building from a museum into a mosque. Hagia Sophia is a historic site on UNESCO's World Heritage List that has served as a Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox cathedral, as well as a mosque and had been a museum since 1935. This change of status disrupts a contract with the Swiss Company SICPA (through its Turkish subsidiary) which has the right to operate Hagia Sophia ticket sales for seven more years, with an annual revenue obtained from the entrance fees to the museum estimated at 400 million lira (around 57 million US$). The paper explores options for investment arbitration for foreign investors affected by changes brought about by sovereign decisions on the basis of religious and cultural grounds. The paper investigates the possibility that the Switzerland-Turkey BIT of 1988 may offer bases for compensation to SICPA, before engaging in a broader reflection on the limits of sovereign discretion on issues of religion and culture