European Law

Belgium, CETA, CJEU, ECJ, European Law, European Union, Germany, Intra-EU BITs, The Netherlands, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, Ukraine, Vietnam

(NL-Investmentconsulting)/ /3 Comments

The recent developments concerning the signature of the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the EU have illustrated the paralysis and inability of the EU and its Member States to deliver economic prosperity and create jobs – which used to be one of the very reasons for establishing the EU and giving it…

Arbitration, Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Proceedings, Competition Law, European Law, European Union, France, Set aside an arbitral award, Set aside an international arbitral award

(EDGE Legal, Brussels) and (EDGE Legal - Brussels)/ /Leave a comment

On the 7th of July 2016 the Court of Justice of the European Union (“Court” or “CJEU”) published the judgment in the Genentech case (Case C 567/14), awaited with great interest both by IP and competition practitioners, on one side, and by arbitration practitioners, on the other. IP and competition law practitioners’ interest lies in the…

Arbitration, Domestic Courts, Europe, European Law, European Union

(University of Bari Aldo Moro)/ /Leave a comment

European institutions have established the European Account Preservation Order procedure (“EAPO”) to facilitate the cross-border debt recovery through the attachment of bank accounts (see here the Regulation (EU) No. 655/2014, which will apply from 18 January 2017, except for Denmark and the United Kingdom). The EAPO in particular provides creditors with a measure alternative to national…

Arbitration, European Law, European Union, Investment Arbitration

(University of Cambridge)/ /Leave a comment

Juliane Kokott, Advocate General to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), gave the 2016 Mackenzie-Stuart Lecture on 26 February 2016 at the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Law. In her lecture, Ms. Kokott explored the conflicts between investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) and European Union (EU) law, as regards (1) conflicts between…

Annulment, Antitrust arbitration, Award Scrutiny, CJEU, Competition Law, Enforcement, Europe, European Law, European Union, Gas Supply Agreements, ICC Rules, New York Convention, Ordre Public, Review on the merits

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

A ruling of the Austrian Supreme Court, the Oberste Gerichtshof in Vienna, Austria, of earlier this year (see ruling of 18 February 2015, 2 Ob 22/14w) raises anew the much debated question of the type and intensity of supervisory court review of European Union (EU) competition law awards. Readers may recall that EU competition law…

Arbitrability, Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Enforcement of an arbitration clause, European Law

(Allen & Overy LLP)/ /Leave a comment
YIAG

Accentuate Ltd v. ASIGRA Inc. [2009] EWHC 2655; Fern Computer Consultancy Ltd v Intergraph Cadworx & Analysis Solutions Inc [2014] EWHC 2908 (Ch) In 2009, a senior libel judge sitting in the English High Court held that an arbitration agreement was “null and void” or “inoperative” because it purported to apply a foreign law which…

Amicus Curiae, European Commission, European Law, European Union, Fair and Equitable Treatment, ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, Injunction, Investment Arbitration, Review on the merits, Romania, Sweden, Uncategorized

(University of Aberdeen )/ /Leave a comment

 ‘By putting its head in the sand, the ostrich can see no problems, and if it can’t see any problems, they don’t exist”[1] To what extent can legal systems differ? Can these differences be legitimate enough to collapse a “conflictive” legal system? These two ambitious questions are difficult to be answered in one go, and…

European Law, European Union, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection

(White & Case LLP)/ /Leave a comment

The Higher Regional Court Frankfurt (OLG Frankfurt) has recently strengthened the efficiency of parties’ wills embodied in arbitration agreements. In a crucial decision (OLG Frankfurt am Main, 26 Sch 3/13, Ruling, 18 December 2014), the judges have added clarity to the practical problem of how to resolve friction between an increasingly dense net of treaty…

BIT, Energy Charter Treaty, European Commission, European Law, European Union, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, ISDS

(NL-Investmentconsulting)/ /1 Comment

The Inaugural Conference of the European Federation for Investment Law and Arbitration (EFILA) took place on Friday, 23 January 2015, in the Senate House of the Queen Mary University of London. 160 participants ranging from academics, arbitrators, arbitration institutions, companies, lawyers to NGOs reviewed a full day long the EU’s first 5 years of European…

Amicus Curiae, European Commission, European Law, ICSID Arbitration, Non-Disputing Parties

(González-Bueno & Asociados)/ /Leave a comment

The controversial role of non-disputing parties has been the object of a significant amount of literature. While third party funding was a hot topic hitherto, the so-called amicus curia, and its evolving role, might be back in the spotlight. Since the first ICSID amicus case -the Bechtel case- until today, the rights, interests at stake…

Brussels Regulation, Domestic law, Enforcement, European Law, Parallel Proceedings

(Herbert Smith Freehills LLP)/ /Leave a comment
Herbert Smith Freehills

As has been discussed previously on this blog, the recast Brussels Regulation contains a number of important clarifications to the arbitration exception. Paragraph 3 of Recital 12 and Article 73(2) make it clear that the recast Regulation shall not affect the application of the New York Convention (the “Convention”). The recast Regulation should allow a…

Arbitrability, Competition Law, Domestic Courts, European Law, European Union, New York Convention, U.S. Supreme Court

(Colibra Insurance)/ /Leave a comment

A number of decisions of various national courts have dealt with the issue whether a competition law dispute may be referred to arbitration. Although the case law tends to favour a positive answer, it is still an issue that is being continuously brought up in litigation as an easy way out of arbitration clauses. This…

BIT, European Law, European Union, Investment Arbitration

(Taylor Wessing)/ /Leave a comment

Investment arbitration under investment treaties between EU member states is a hot topic, in particular given the EU Commission’s strong views on the subject: As previously discussed here, the Commission has intervened in arbitrations in support of the position that the arbitral tribunal lacked jurisdiction to hear the dispute. One such matter was Eureko v….

Arbitration, Domestic Courts, Enforcement, EU Regulation 44/ 2001, European Law, European Union

(Linklaters)/ /Leave a comment
Linklaters

By Alessandro Villani and Manuela Caccialanza One of the more debated issues in the process of the implementation and review of Regulation No. 44/2001 (“Brussels Regulation”) was the general exclusion of arbitration from the matters covered by the Brussels Regulation. The debate about the opportunity to mitigate such exclusion arises from the subsequent difficulty in…

Enforcement, EU Regulation 44/ 2001, Europe, European Law, Jurisdiction

(Colibra Insurance)/ /Leave a comment

In Part I of my post, the revised “Brussels I” Regulation (Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters) was discussed in the light of a hypothetical example from international trade and arbitration. This Part 2 strives to outline the…

Enforcement, EU Regulation 44/ 2001, Europe, European Law, Jurisdiction

(Colibra Insurance)/ /Leave a comment

Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 (published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 20 December 2012) implements a new, recast version of the Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in…

BIT, Europe, European Law, European Union

(Perréard de Boccard)/ /Leave a comment

Two major events have taken place recently regarding the situation of Bilateral Investment Treaties concluded between European Member States (“Intra-EU BITs”) and Bilateral Investment Treaties concluded between an European Member State and a State not Member of the EU (“Extra-EU BITs”). The fate of these agreements was surrounded up until now by a veil of…

European Law, Investment Arbitration, Jurisdiction, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal

(Linklaters)/ /1 Comment

Investment arbitration under intra-EU investment treaties has been a controversial topic for years. The European Commission has repeatedly expressed the view that arbitration clauses in bilateral investment treaties between EU Member States are in conflict with EU law and therefore inoperative, while arbitral tribunals have, on several occasions, assumed jurisdiction on the basis of such…

BIT, Costs, Europe, European Law, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration

(Linklaters)/ /1 Comment

With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December 2009, control of foreign direct investment became an exclusive area of EU competence, or such is the view of the European Commission, a view which is not shared by all EU member States. Since that time, the Commission has embarked upon what it…

Arbitration, Arbitration Act, Arbitration Awards, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, Eastern Europe, Enforcement, English Law, European Law, New York Convention, Pro arbitration

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

Following the path of the hotly debated West Tankers decision, in African Fertilizers v BD Shipsnavo, the English Commercial Court held that a declaratory award is enforceable, allowing judgment to be entered on the same terms as the arbitral award. Such an order enables a party to obtain the material benefit of the award and…

Energy Charter Treaty, European Law, Investment Arbitration

(Conway & Partners)/ /Leave a comment

On March 15, 2011 the Advocate General (“AG”) issued its opinion on an interesting matter which considers the relationship between EU law, a contract preceding the Republic of Slovakia’s accession into the EU and the Energy Charter Treaty and Investment Arbitration Agreement (essentially, a bilateral investment treaty applicable here). The dispute involves a contract dated…

Asia-Pacific, BIT, European Law, Investment Arbitration

(Notre Dame Law School)/ /Leave a comment

In the past twenty years the world of investment arbitration has taken the commercial world by storm. There are over 2,750 bilateral investment treaties and almost every one of them has an arbitration provision. Investment arbitration is now a prominent feature of the arbitration landscape. Just as BITs have proliferated in recent years, so too…

BIT, Europe, European Law, Investment Arbitration, Other Issues, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

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

The growing success of investment arbitration may collide with the European Commission’s attitude towards intra-EU BITs, as shown recently by a development reported in August 2010 (the IA Reporter, August 5, 2010, Vol. 3, No. 12) regarding the Eureko v. Slovakia arbitration. In this case, Eureko initiated a claim against the Slovak Republic based on…

Europe, European Law, Legal Practice, Legislation

(Herbert Smith Freehills LLP)/ /Leave a comment
Herbert Smith Freehills

Art. 207 of the Lisbon Treaty defines the new common commercial policy of the European Union, and states that it shall furthermore relate also to “foreign direct investments”. This provision has the appeal of an outright earthquake, given that the field of foreign investment, and in particular investment treaties, has always been the exclusive realm…