Days 2 and 3 of the LIDW 2023 saw insightful discussions on three hot topics in international arbitration, i.e. corruption, diversity and efficiency. This post summarizes discussions held during two events: “Corruption in International Arbitration: Challenges and Approaches” held on Day 2, and “Increasing Diversity and Efficiency in the Resolution of Construction and Engineering Disputes”…

The practice of early determination, already customary to common law, has increasingly gained ground in investment and commercial arbitration, being introduced to various arbitration rules. It aims to enhance efficiency by narrowing the issues in dispute or rejecting the whole claim at an early stage, saving both time and cost in a proceeding. In practice,…

The Seoul ADR Festival (“SAF”) 2022, conducted by the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board, was held between 7-11 November 2022. The 11th Asia-Pacific ADR Virtual Conference, the flagship conference of SAF 2022, took place on 9-10 November 2022 and was attended by more than 400 participants. It covered a broad range of topics over four sessions….

There’s a story told of Abraham Lincoln who, during his days as a working lawyer, was riding in a stagecoach from one rural courthouse to another. His companions got to discussing human anatomy, and one of them asked Lincoln, a distinctly tall man himself, how long he thought a man’s legs should be. Long enough,…

Canadian Arbitration Week ran online from September 20 – 24, 2021 under the theme of adaptation and acceleration.  A timely focus as the pandemic continues to accelerate sweeping changes in the legal world. The 2021 YCAP Fall Symposium titled “New World, New Rules” took place on September 23 and addressed the theme in a session…

The Sixth Sarajevo Arbitration Day conference took place on 23 October 2020 and it was dedicated to the opportunities to adopt positive arbitration practices amidst the challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic. This annual conference organized by the Association ARBITRI took place online for the first time and gathered legal practitioners from all over the…

On the second day of the Hong Kong Arbitration Week 2020, the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (“BIICL”) hosted a virtual workshop on the impacts of technology and the pandemic which allows (or rather, demands) us to “re-imagine” arbitration.   Smart Contracts, Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies The first panel discussion addressed “Smart Contracts, Blockchain…

UNCITRAL’s Working Group II (“WGII”) resumes next week its work on drafting expedited arbitration provisions (“EAPs”) for use with the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules (“UARs”).  One of the key “aims” underlying development of these procedures is “to improve the efficiency and quality of arbitral proceedings.”  This post examines why efficiency matters, how the EAPs encourage efficiency,…

Arbitrating investment disputes has its peculiarities stemming out of the nature of the dispute, as well as from the parties involved, which become relevant when assessing the feasibility of implementing expedited arbitration provisions. ICSID Arbitration Rules and UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, the main arbitration rules currently used for investment arbitration proceedings, are in the process of…

Next week, the seventy-second session of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law’s (“UNCITRAL”) Working Group II (“WG II”), considering the issue of expedited arbitration, will be held in a hybrid system, with participants being able to take part in the session either in person, in Vienna, or remotely, via an online platform. The…

On 11 August 2020 the LCIA unveiled the long-awaited update to its Arbitration Rules (the 2020 Rules). The 2020 Rules will become effective on 1 October 2020 and will apply to arbitrations commenced from that date onwards. They will supersede the 2014 edition of the LCIA Arbitration Rules (the 2014 Rules). The 2020 Rules introduce…

Document production is widely regarded as one of the most time-consuming and costly elements of international arbitration.1)The 2018 International Arbitration Survey: The Evolution of International Arbitration by the School of International Arbitration at Queen Mary University of London and White & Case lists “cost” as arbitration’s worst feature, followed by “lack of effective sanctions during…

While the hurdles of virtual hearings have been documented with numerous intelligible solutions, little attention has been turned towards how advocacy is faring in the offline-online migration. It is an attractive notion to think that advocacy, in its subjective glory, can be seamlessly transplanted from the offline world and into the virtual dimension with little…

Two recent online seminars, organised in the context of the Online Seminar Series of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC), focused on the fast-track digitalisation into which the world of international arbitration is forced as a result of the pandemic. The first, held on 29 April, addressed the current topic of Online Hearings When the…

“Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror into the world that she can see beyond it. There she finds that, just like a reflection, everything is reversed”…and “walking away from something brings you towards it” (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll). The current worldwide outbreak forced by Covid-19 has…

Many will shy away from this article on account of its mere title. This is understandable considering that document production tends to be seen as a nightmarish phase in arbitration for junior, senior lawyers and arbitrators alike. This is because, if not handled properly, document production can turn into a very costly and time-consuming exercise….

In the last few years, the international arbitration community has started to engage in discussions on the digital transformation of dispute resolution and on artificial intelligence (also on this blog). Scholars and arbitration practitioners have been speculating on how artificial intelligence might be used in arbitral proceedings and the potential impact it might have on…

In the recently rendered Oded Besserglik v Mozambique award (“Award”), after 5 years of proceedings and millions in costs and expenses, a tribunal accepted a Motion to Dismiss and declined jurisdiction over the dispute for the relevant treaty never entered into force. Despite the fact that Mozambique prevailed on its motion, this case raises several…

Essential Role of Effective Case Management in Arbitration Throughout the second half of the 20th century, arbitration has become a dominant and preferred method for resolving international disputes. Its advantages are widely known. This being said, international arbitration suffers nowadays from increasing costs and duration of the proceedings. It is less efficient than it promises….

We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions:   Lucy Greenwood, Revisiting Bifurcation and Efficiency in International Arbitration Proceedings In 2011, the author published an analysis of available empirical data on bifurcation of disputes in this journal. The article, ‘Does Bifurcation Really…

On 23 May 2019, the Arbitration Institute of the Finland Chamber of Commerce (FAI) hosted the 15th IFCAI Biennial Conference in Helsinki. The International Federation of Commercial Arbitration Institutions (IFCAI) organises the “IFCAI Biennial Conference” every two years in cooperation with an IFCAI member arbitration institution. This year it was hosted by the FAI in lieu…

Last month, Seoul was once again brimming with eminent arbitrators and arbitration counsel, and leading alternate dispute resolution practitioners from around the world who had come to attend the Seoul ADR Festival 2018 – a much sought-after yearly event which has grown remarkably in scope and significance since it was first organized in 2015.1)This article…

Hogan Lovells hosted an event yesterday, 30 October 2018, at its Hong Kong office, as part of the Hong Kong Arbitration Week, titled “Making Arbitration Fit for the Future”.  The event was graced by the presence of Bernard Hanotiau as the keynote speaker, followed by speeches from HKIAC’s Sarah Grimmer and Hogan Lovells’ James Kwan,…

The week-long series of events for Hong Kong Arbitration Week 2018 kicked off with a seminar hosted by Latham & Watkins entitled “Ensuring Efficiency in International Arbitration  Proceedings: Tips for Asian Users”. The seminar consisted of two roundtable discussions with practitioners and professionals in the field of international arbitration. The first roundtable featured Mr. Bernard…