For the centenary anniversary of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, this year’s ICC New York Conference on International Arbitration convened over 330 international arbitration practitioners, in-house counsel, academics, students, and outside counsel from 36 countries in the heart of New York City. As ICC Secretary General John W. H. Denton highlighted in his opening…

How strong a scent of a conflict will a court tolerate before setting aside an international commercial arbitration award on procedural grounds? In Aroma Franchise Company Inc. et al v. Aroma Espresso Bar Canada Inc. et al, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice set aside a $10 million award as a result of an undisclosed…

It is undisputed that arbitration depends on the trust placed by the parties in the arbitrators. The Brazilian Arbitration Act (the “BAA”) reaffirms this principle when it provides that an individual may only act as an arbitrator if he/she “is trusted by the parties” (BAA, Article 13) and when it puts the burden to disclose…

The requirement that a tribunal be impartial is a fundamental procedural principle. It is not surprising, then, that under Art. 18 of the Russian Arbitration Act, arbitration proceedings are conducted, first and foremost, based on the principle of impartiality and independence of arbitrators. Although the Russian International Arbitration Act, based on UNCITRAL Model Law 1985,…

The International Academy of Comparative Law (IACL) held its XXI General Congress in October 2022. The topic of one of the sessions was Impartiality and Independence of International Adjudicators. The purpose of the work was to assess criteria, mechanisms and remedies applied in the various legal systems (including international courts and arbitration) to ensure the…

The biennial 2020 Arbitration in Africa Survey Report (2020 Survey), which is the second in the series, is focused on top African arbitral centres and seats. It identifies the top and busiest arbitral centres in Africa. The survey was commissioned by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and sponsored by the law firm…

Recent legislative developments have shown that Georgia strives to become a hub for dispute resolution in the Caucasus region. The legislative framework on commercial arbitration is now fully tailored to the needs of international commercial arbitration: the law of Georgia on arbitration (the “Law on Arbitration”) is based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International…

In a recent case, the Swiss Federal Tribunal (“SFT”) has once again been called to consider the question of independence of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (“CAS”) vis-à-vis its funders and users. This note introduces the issue of funding and independence of CAS in the context of the SFT’s prior case law and discusses…

On December 12, 2017, the Supreme Court of Japan rendered its first decision on the setting aside of an arbitral award based on an arbitrator’s failure to disclose facts allegedly constituting a conflict of interest, reasoning that, in order for the award to be set aside on this ground, it is necessary that the arbitrator…