By José Miguel Júdice and Luís Castilho, PLMJ – Sociedade de Advogados Three years after the entry into force of the Portuguese Tax Arbitration Regime, the European Court of Justice (“the Court”) has, in the Ascendi Case (Case 377/13), finally issued a groundbreaking decision regarding the long standing question of whether the Tax Arbitral Court…
By Resolution of 27 March 2014, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly condemned the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity (A/RES/68/262). The Security Council remained, however, powerless to impose against Russia economic sanctions which all UN member States would have had to implement. In the absence of such “multilateral” sanctions, the European Union (EU) and the…
In his President’s Message (ASA Bulletin, Vol. 32, no. 2, 2014), Elliott Geisinger proposes a real challenge to the arbitration community. In a simple but rather persuasive rhetorical style, Geisinger places in confrontation Me. Paul Philibert Confus, Avocat à la Cour and Sir Reginald Muddle, QC, giving life to a debate that seems to be…
An English court recently ruled on important questions relating to arbitration due process. In Interprods Ltd v De La Rue International Ltd, [2014] EWHC 68 (Comm), the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court dismissed an application to annul an arbitral award rendered by a sole arbitrator sitting in London. The circumstances that gave rise…
Sandra De Vito Bieri with Anton Vucurovic 1)Sandra De Vito Bieri, attorney at law, LL.M., is a Partner and Co-Head of the Arbitration Practice Group of Bratschi Wiederkehr & Buob in Zurich and Member of the Arbitration Court of the Swiss Chambers’ Arbitration Institution; Anton Vucurovic, attorney at law, LL.M., is a Partner and Head…
Critical negotiation moments punctuate the entire timeline of an international arbitration, from before it starts to even after it is over. And when these moments arise, a practitioner’s ability to negotiate effectively can sometimes be as important as their mastery of the subject matter. After all, what use is technical skill if you cannot deploy…
The views expressed are those of the author alone and should not be regarded as representative of or binding upon the author’s institution or the ArbitralWomen. Guidelines 26 and 27 of the IBA Guidelines on Party Representation in International Arbitration have again raised the debate on the extent that Arbitral Tribunals are entitled to deal…
On Monday, 7 April, at the 2014 ICCA Miami Conference, the international-arbitration community gathered to address the question, “Who are the arbitrators?” The answer, panel attendees were told, was “male, pale, and stale” – that is, a large majority of the individuals chosen to serve as international arbitrators are male, from North America or Western…
and Niyati Gandhi, National Law School of India University in Bangalore The issues arising out of allegations of fraud in international commercial arbitration can be listed by way of two closely connected questions: 1) Do arbitral tribunals have the substantive jurisdiction to make determinations upon allegations of fraud? 2) If the contract containing an arbitration…
By Roland Ziadé and Claudia Cavicchioli, Linklaters LLP On 17 December 2013, the Paris Court of Appeal added a new chapter to the Jnah vs. Marriott saga, when it ruled on an action to set aside an arbitral award issued on 3 February 2012 by which an arbitral tribunal denied jurisdiction over claims brought on…
It has been over two years since the DC Circuit Court of Appeals (“Circuit Court”) vacated an award in a bilateral investment treaty arbitration (BG Group PLC v. Republic of Argentina (UNCITRAL)) concluding that the panel did not have authority to adjudicate the dispute because the claimant had not satisfied a pre-arbitration requirement, namely, litigating…
I. Power To Sanction Courts generally enjoy power to enforce procedural rules and orders by various means, such as fines, adverse inferences, cost/fee awards, preclusion of evidence, and even default judgment. Surprisingly, when arbitrators employ such measures, they enter a legal frontier of unsettled law. Why? An arbitrator’s procedural power derives from private contract, not…
A controversial decision by Qatar’s Court of Cassation has ruled on the necessity for arbitral awards to be rendered in the name of His Highness The Emir of Qatar. The said ruling issued on 12 June 2012 (Petition No. 64/2012) set aside an arbitral award rendered under the auspices of the Qatar International Center for…
and Oleg Temnikov Foreword The tribunal in Mesa Power Group, LLC v. Canada (PCA Case No. 2012-17, Procedural Order No. 2, 18 January 2013) recently stated with regard to bifurcation of proceedings that: “[I]t is good… to let the parties ‘know where they stand’… at an early stage and not to impose the burden of…
Introduction Unable to make this year’s ASA Conference I accepted the invitation to submit a brief paper which I entitled: “Six Modest Proposals Before You Get to the Award”. A principal theme was Tribunal logistics and attention. I was happy to receive some positive feedback and have given this theme more thought. Arguably I have…
The facts On January 9, 2008, in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest, the dam of a hydroelectric power plant ruptured liberating 3.1 billion liters of water and precipitating an environmental mishap. Brazilian authorities hastily cornered the electricity generation company. The electricity generation company hastily pointed the finger at the builder of the hydroelectric power…
The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”) has issued new rules that came into force on April 1, 2013. The rules changes are accompanied by new Practice Notes for cases administered by SIAC under its rules and the UNCITRAL rules that also came into force on the same date. While the changes do not reflect a…
At a conference a few years back, a well-known and respected arbitrator was speaking on the topic of predictability and consistency of arbitral decision making in investment treaty arbitration. The arbitrator asked whether arbitrators should fly solo or in flocks. He made a strong and persuasive case for the independence of the arbitrator, to fly…
A new study of dispute resolution practices in Fortune 1,000 corporations shows that many large companies are using binding arbitration less often and relying more on mediated negotiation and other approaches aimed at resolving disputes informally, quickly and inexpensively. The 2011 survey of corporate counsel developed by researchers at Cornell University’s Scheinman Institute on Conflict…
Co-authored by Christopher Boog and Benjamin Moss, Schellenberg Wittmer An arbitral tribunal’s duty to render an enforceable award is frequently used by commentators and counsel alike in support of positions on myriad matters ranging from procedural fairness and jurisdiction to the application of mandatory foreign law. Its considerable malleability has indeed made it very attractive…
As its Council Member I attended the ICC Institute of World Business Law’s 32nd annual meeting on ‘Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration’ held in Paris on 26 November 2012. It was a grand success as it drew many professionals, arbitrators, experts, academic specialists and, above all, representatives from some major third-party funding bodies such as…
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which sits in Atlanta, waded into the debate concerning whether 28 U.S.C. § 1782 — which provides U.S. district courts with the power to order parties to give testimony or produce documents “for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal” —…
Switzerland may be one of the world’s most important arbitral seats, even so one would scarcely expect arbitration to hold much interest for the tubercular residents of Davos in Mann’s novel Der Zauberberg or The Magic Mountain. Yet aficionados of arbitration who persevere to the sixth chapter of his lengthy book are treated to a…
