Arbitrator neutrality remains an imperative prerequisite in international commercial arbitration. After all, the primary advantage of arbitration is that parties have the ability to choose their own decision-makers.  The issue of advance waivers typically arises at the time of appointment, when the arbitrator reserves the right to continue as an arbitrator despite the occurrence of…

Five years after filing the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) Case No. 2013-32 under the European Development Fund Arbitration Rules (EDF Rules), the claimant, Consta JV (an Italian contractor), would have hoped for a successful award against the CDE (a joint enterprise between the Ethiopian and Djibouti government) that would be upheld by the local…

On 9 May 2018, the School of International Arbitration at Queen Mary University of London, in partnership with White & Case LLP, launched the 2018 Queen Mary/White & Case International Arbitration Survey: The Evolution of International Arbitration. As its title suggests, the survey sought to assess user perceptions of the evolution of key issues in…

On 5 January 2018, the Central Government introduced New Delhi International Arbitration Centre Bill, 2018 (the “Bill”) in the lower house of Indian Parliament (Lok Sabha). This was with the objective of making India an investor-friendly nation. There are few arbitral institutions operating in India – Indian Council of Arbitration (“ICA”), International Centre for Alternative…

“Japan is Back”?   Prime Minister Shinzo Abe himself is certainly back – having led the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to a fifth consecutive election in October 2017. If Abe remains in power for another three years, he will become the longest serving Japanese prime minister since World War II. Although the electorate probably responded…

TO: Secretary General, Arbitration Institution FROM: In-house counsel involved in a major contract negotiation Madam/Sir, We are both in-house litigation counsel for a large international company, and your institution was recently proposed for the disputes clause in an important contract. Since neither of us had any previous experience with your institution, we searched your website…

Overview In 2015, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria highlighted the importance of positioning Australia as one of the next significant regional commercial hubs. Her Honour reiterated this position in a 2017 speech. Interestingly, similar, yet more subtle, comments were featured in a speech in 2009. Other Australian courts have made similar…

One of the most significant changes that the new Russian Arbitration Law introduced, which has been in force for past eight months, relates to the requirement of Governmental authorization for establishing an arbitral institution (more discussion on this can be found in some of previous KAB posts available here, here, here). In particular, the Russian…

White & Case’s recent research should provide some comfort to the arbitral community by showing that arbitral institutions are becoming increasingly flexible and responsive to users’ needs. Flexibility was in fact a characteristic which the 2015 survey conducted by White & Case with Queen Mary University of London established as being one of the most…

In TMT Co Ltd v The Royal Bank of Scotland plc [2017] SGHC 21, the Singapore High Court took the view that an arbitration clause did not meet the prima facie standard to warrant a stay of court proceedings because it designated an inapplicable arbitral institution. Commentators have suggested that the decision is “surprising” and…

On 1 January 2017, the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (‘ACICA’) released a new Guideline on the Use of Tribunal Secretaries. This new Guideline addresses a silence in the existing ACICA Arbitration Rules as to the scope for tribunals to appoint arbitral secretaries, and the basis upon which they might be appointed. This post…

Background Bulgarian arbitration law has been an area of rare developments. It is incorporated in the International Commercial Arbitration Act (“ICAA”), adopted in 1988 as almost a direct translation of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration in its 1985 version. The only major reform of ICAA was its extension to arbitrations between entirely…

In January 2017 the new Lima Chamber of Commerce Arbitration Rules (the “new LCC Rules”) will come into force. These rules seek to provide a better regulatory framework and improve the efficiency of arbitration by taking into consideration the world´s leading international arbitration institutions’ rules. Numerous key changes have been made to ensure the quality…

Liability in international arbitration is a recurrent yet unsettled issue. Occasionally, we hear of a fearless party that dares to sue an arbitrator and/or an arbitral institution based on allegations of a conflict of interest, procedural irregularity, error of law, or a failure to oversee the good conduct of the arbitration proceedings. The discussions prompted…

Iran. The country with enormous trade potential and a juicy market for many foreign companies around the globe. Following partial lifting of sanctions in Iran, it is expected that more and more businesses from different industries will enter the Iranian market. Needless to say, along with the development of international trade in Iran more disputes…

1 September 2016 marks the key date in the long-awaited Russian arbitration law reform, publicly announced by the President of the Russian Federation already in 2013. Since then, the Russian arbitration law reform has been in the public eye attracting significant publicity (previous blog posts on this can be read: here, here, here, and here)….

Introduction On 12 July 2016, a five-member arbitral tribunal (the Tribunal) constituted under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) issued its long-awaited award on the merits in an arbitration brought by the Philippines against China. The tribunal’s jurisdiction is derived from UNCLOS; all State parties to UNCLOS…

When questioned what the users of arbitration expect from the process and what its main pitfalls are, the answer is usually unequivocal: the need for time and cost-efficient proceedings leading to a well-considered decision is not consistently met. The reason for this complaint is obvious: the ‘Golden Age’ of arbitration has made way for a…

On March 30, ITA and ASIL co-hosted their annual meeting in Washington, DC, and this year’s theme was “A Spotlight on Ethics in International Arbitration: Advocates, Arbitrators and Awards.” One of the panels explored the question of where best to house authority for determining the ethical obligations of parties and their attorneys. I moderated the…

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and should not be regarded as representative of, or binding upon ArbitralWomen and/or the author’s law firm. 1)Ayça Aydın is an associate of Çetinel Law Firm, based in Istanbul and she is the Chair of Young Istanbul Arbitration Centre. Her areas of practice…

2015 was an eventful year in Hong Kong arbitration. The Hong-Kong based institutions shepherded through several reforms, the local courts issued several pro-arbitration decisions, and a long-awaited Law Reform Commission paper opened the door to third-party funding for arbitration. Third party funding for arbitration in Hong Kong Readers will be aware of the increasing popularity…

Latvian courts annually enforce approximately 1000 arbitral awards. Just a few years ago this number was even higher – reaching 7000 requests in 2004 (statistics of the Court Information System available here) – since also consumer disputes could have been submitted to arbitration, as non-negotiated arbitration clauses were not presumed to be unfair and thus…

1. Introduction There is no precise information as to when the Arbitration Court attached to the Foreign Chamber of Commerce of Bosnia and Herzegovina was established (Arbitration Court). There is some sporadic information according to which the Arbitration Court was established in the post Second World War period, but at that time the Arbitration Court’s…