Arbitration Agreements

Appointment of arbitrators, Arbitration, Arbitration Act, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitrators, arbitrators’ conduct, Dispute Resolution, Dispute resolution clause, English Law, ICC Arbitration, International arbitration, Ismaili community, Nationality requirement in arbitration clauses, Pro arbitration, Supreme Court

(Allen & Overy LLP)/ /Leave a comment

In this post, we will first deal briefly with the facts in the case of Jivraj v Hashwani and the findings of the first instance judge and the Court of Appeal, which by now would be very familiar to anyone reading this blog. We will then look at the Supreme Court’s judgment ([2011] UKSC 40),…

Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitrators, Ismaili community

(Herbert Smith Freehills LLP)/ /2 Comments
Herbert Smith Freehills

The Supreme Court has arrived at what almost all arbitration practitioners and clients will view as the right result in the strange episode of Jivraj v Hashwani. The Supreme Court has unanimously allowed the appeal on the basis that an arbitrator is not an employee of the parties for the purposes of the Employment Equality…

Arbitration, Arbitration Act, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Awards, Arbitration clause

(Debevoise & Plimpton LLP)/ /5 Comments
American Society of International Law (ASIL)

Costa Rica has a new Arbitration Law, which is based on the 2006 version of the UNCITRAL Model Law. The relative speed with which the new Arbitration Law was adopted came as a surprise to many. Only a few months ago, at the Second International Arbitration Congress organized by the ICC Costa Rica in San…

Appeal, Appointment of arbitrators, Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitrators, Commercial Arbitration, Dispute resolution clause, Domestic Courts, Enforcement of an arbitration clause, English Law, ICC Arbitration, Nationality requirement in arbitration clauses, Supreme Court

(White & Case LLP)/ /2 Comments
White & Case

One of the key issues that now awaits the decision of the U.K. Supreme Court in Jivraj v. Hashwani is whether there is a contract between the parties and the arbitrators, such that the arbitrators may be considered “employees” of the parties (and thereby subject to the law prohibiting discrimination by employers)? If there is…

Anti-arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Corporate Counsel's view, Costs, International arbitration

(MDisputes)/ /3 Comments

Dear Counsel, Thank you for taking the time to present your firm’s international arbitration practice, and also for the copies of the brochure and monthly newsletter. The many recent wins by your firm and the published articles demonstrate convincingly that you are quality professionals with a high-standing in the community. I’m certain it was not…

Anti-arbitration, Appointment of arbitrators, Arbitral seat, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Arbitration Proceedings, Dispute resolution clause, International arbitration

(MDisputes)/ /4 Comments

The Arab Spring transforming the societies of the Middle East has raised more than a few questions among us in-house folk about what this will mean for dispute resolution in the region. Will civil institutions, in particular the courts, be a reliable mechanism in the coming years for upholding contractual rights, including agreements to arbitrate…

Arbitral seat, Arbitration, Arbitration Act, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Awards, Commercial Arbitration, Disclosure, International arbitration, National Arbitration Laws, Seat of the arbitration

(White & Case LLP)/ /1 Comment
White & Case

Clear tendencies towards an arbitration-friendly approach have been demonstrated by the Swedish Supreme Court during the latter part of 2010. During this term the Supreme Court has repeatedly taken an arbitration-friendly stance and emphasized that Swedish arbitration law and practice ought to be in line with international best practice in arbitration. Sweden has a long-standing…

Arbitral seat, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings

(Herbert Smith Freehills)/ /1 Comment
Herbert Smith Freehills

In recent years, an increasing number of parties to arbitration clauses providing for CIETAC arbitration in mainland China have chosen to take advantage of Article 4.2 of the CIETAC Rules, which allows parties to adopt “other arbitration rules” as the applicable rules of the arbitration. The underlying reason for this trend is simple: Article 4.2…

Annulment, Appeal, Arbitration Act, Arbitration Agreements, Enforcement, Estoppel, France

(WilmerHale & Queen Mary University of London)/ /1 Comment

On Thursday, 13 January 2011, France revealed its long-awaited new arbitration law. The décret n° 2011-48 portant réforme de l’arbitrage, was published in France’s Official Journal, alongside a report commenting on the reform. The new law can be found here, as well as the accompanying commentary here. The reform concerns both domestic and international arbitration…

Arbitration Agreements, Asia-Pacific, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, National Arbitration Laws

(White & Case LLP)/ /Leave a comment
White & Case

In two recent decisions, the Singapore High Court reaffirmed its stance on minimal intervention in arbitration proceedings. The two decisions were made against different sets of circumstances but the Court nonetheless abided by its policy of minimal intervention. This posting examines the two recent decisions, in particular, the approach taken by the High Court. In…

Arbitration Agreements

(Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /Leave a comment
WilmerHale

If a national court is called upon, in the context of an application to refer parties to arbitration, to determine whether a valid arbitration agreement exists, how probing should the court’s examination of the existence or validity of the putative agreement be? Judicial authorities in countries that have adopted the UNCITRAL Model Law on International…

Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Awards, Arbitration clause, Arbitration Proceedings, Brazil, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, South America

(TozziniFreire Advogados)/ /Leave a comment

International arbitration often involves parties, arbitrators, and counsel from both Common Law and Civil Law traditions, which sometimes creates misinterpretations about how evidence production will occur. The recent São Paulo court opinion determining that an ICC arbitral tribunal should widen the scope of the expert evidence it was considering in a dispute regarding the construction…

Appointment of arbitrators, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Arbitrators, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, ICC Arbitration, National Arbitration Laws, Partial award, Set aside an international arbitral award

(Castaldi Mourre & Partners)/ /2 Comments

Amongst the many issues raised by the now famous Tecnimont case, which we analyzed in our 19 May 2009 blog , was the relevance in setting aside proceedings of institutional rules relating to challenges. The ICC partial award had been quashed by a 12 February 2009 judgment of the Court of Appeal of Paris, because…

Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Awards, New York Convention

(Albright StoneBridge Group)/ /3 Comments

*The Miami Draft was originally called ‘the new NYC: a hypothetical draft’ by its drafter Albert Jan van den Berg, subsequently dubbed ‘the Dublin Convention’ at the occasion of the ICCA conference in Dublin 2008 and finally, echoing the influential 1961 “Harvard Draft” on the responsibility of States, renamed ‘the Miami Draft’ when re-presented by…

Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Awards, Russia

(Muranov, Chernyakov and Partners)/ /4 Comments

It is well known that the New York Convention is widely recognized as a foundational instrument of international arbitration. In addition to this Convention, there are also international bilateral agreements in which Paragraph 1 of Article VII of the New York Convention specifically refers to and determines the relationship between its provisions and other agreements….

Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Costs in arbitral proceedings, Disclosure, Domestic Courts, United States

(Castaldi Mourre & Partners)/ /Leave a comment

As is well known, Section 1782(a) provides that a “the district court of the district in which a person resides or is found may order him to give his testimony or statement or to produce a document or other thing for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal”. The applicability of 28…

Arbitration Agreements, BIT, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection

(University of Victoria Faculty of Law)/ /1 Comment

27 June 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of investment treaty jurisprudence.  On 27 June 1990, the tribunal in Asian Agricultural Products Ltd. v. Sri Lanka (ICSID Case No. ARB/87/3) (AAPL) dispatched its final award to the parties.  The AAPL tribunal (Dr. Ahmed Sadek El-Kosheri (President), Professor Berthold Goldman and Dr. Samuel Asante) was the first…

Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Other Issues

(White & Case LLP)/ /Leave a comment
White & Case

The United States’ Supreme Court opinion in Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. Animalfeeds International Corp. has already been the focus of much discussion in both U.S. and international arbitration circles. One area of interest for arbitration practitioners is the impact which the decision may or should have on how drafters of arbitration clauses should address the issue…

Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Awards, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, Europe, Public Policy, Set aside an international arbitral award

(Castaldi Mourre & Partners)/ /Leave a comment

The arbitrability of a dispute is not generally limited to private law. In many countries, including Germany and Switzerland, it is admitted that arbitration can also bear on claims derived from public law, and in particular on rights conferred upon by contracts subject to administrative law. Arbitrability of such disputes may however be more problematic…

Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, kompetenz-kompetenz, South America

(Veirano Advogados)/ /Leave a comment
American Society of International Law (ASIL)

The Court of Appeals for the state of Bahia in Brazil recently handed down an arbitration-friendly decision and vacated an injunction intended to stay an arbitration proceeding. In FAT Ferroatlàntica S.L. vs. Zeus Mineração Ltda. and others, the Court of Appeals addressed the issue of whether the existence of conflicting arbitration clauses in contracts pertaining to a single economic transaction justifies judicial intervention at the outset of the arbitration. The Court of Appeals held that, provided an arbitration agreement exists, such issue is to be dealt with by the arbitrators, not by the Courts.

Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Proceedings, Domestic Courts, Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), Manifest disregard of the law

(White & Case LLP)/ /Leave a comment
White & Case

On April 27, 2010, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision in Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. AnimalFeeds International Corp., No. 08-1198, 559 U.S. ___ (2010). The Court reversed a Second Circuit ruling permitting arbitrators to impose class arbitration upon four shipping companies—including White & Case client Stolt-Nielsen S.A.—under those shipping companies’ shipping contracts…

Arbitration Agreements, Commercial Arbitration, North America

(Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP)/ /Leave a comment

On April 27, 2010, the United States Supreme Court held in Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v Animalfeeds International Corp., that under the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. §§ 1-16 (“FAA”), “[A] party may not be compelled . . . to submit to class arbitration unless there is a contractual basis for concluding that the party agreed to…

Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Proceedings, Investment Arbitration

(University of Victoria Faculty of Law)/ /Leave a comment

The principle of good faith arises in investment treaty arbitrations in various contexts. Tribunals, of course, regularly refer to Article 31(1) of the Vienna Convention for the rule that treaties shall be interpreted in good faith. Tribunals have noted that states must perform their treaty obligations in good faith. References to good faith occur in…

Appointment of arbitrators, Arbitration Agreements, New York Convention

(International Council for Commercial Arbitration)/ /1 Comment
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

In Safety National Casualty Corp. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London, 587 F.3d 714 (5th Cir. 2009), the Fifth Circuit addressed the following question: does the McCarran-Ferguson Act authorize state law prohibiting arbitration agreements in insurance contracts to reverse-preempt the New York Convention or the New York Convention’s implementing legislation (the Federal Arbitration Act, or…