Historic grandeur, impressive architecture, outstanding cultural offerings, natural beauty and diversity, good value for money, beauty, safety, timelessness… Austria truly has a lot going for itself. Yet, should this still not be enough to tempt arbitration users and practitioners around the globe, the new Arbitration and Mediation Rules of the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC)…
In late November, the UN Headquarters in Vienna saw the first meeting of Working Group III of the United Nations Commission on International Trade (UNCITRAL). The meeting marked the initiation of a process of analysis and reform – whatever shape it may ultimately take – of the existing Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) regime. At…
The European Commission (“EC”) has recently taken another step in its efforts to replace the traditional investor-state-dispute-settlement (“ISDS”) mechanism which underlies the approximately 1,400 bilateral investment agreements in force between EU Member States and third countries. On 13 September 2017, the EC issued, based on Article 218(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the…
The decisive underlying reasoning (motifs, Begründung) is, without doubt, an essential part of any arbitral award and as such bears the potential of frustrating parties and arbitrators alike. On the one hand, elaborate reasoning in arbitral awards more often than not comes at the price of long waiting periods for the issuance of the awards,…
Currently, around 190 bilateral investment treaties between EU Member States (“intra-EU BITs”) are still in force. Most of these intra EU-BITs were concluded in the 1990s. Prior to the two enlargement rounds in 2004 and 2007, relatively little attention was paid to the two existing intra-EU BITs. However, after 2004, the status of intra-EU BITs…
One of the main advantages of arbitration vis-à-vis state court litigation, is that the parties are free to choose independent and highly specialised experts to decide their cases. Yet, if these experts negligently (or even deliberately) violate the duties that come with the acceptance of the appointment, the issue of liability arises. One may think…
The New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (“NYC“) was drafted in the spirit and with the purpose of encouraging arbitration as a dispute resolution mechanism, by providing for the simple and swift international enforcement of arbitral awards. Today, the NYC’s reach is – with the exception of a few…
Time and cost efficiency is the most commonly praised argument in favor of arbitration as opposed to state court litigation. The exchanges within the arbitral community as regards strategies to streamline arbitral proceedings in an effort to increase their efficiency are abundant. The issue, quite apparently, ranks high on the hot topic lists of counsel…
