The annual “Great Debate” took place on the fourth day of Australian Arbitration Week. This event, organised with the support of hosting sponsor Corrs Chambers Westgarth, has now become a mainstay of Australian Arbitration Week, and involves a lively comedic debate between Team Arbitration and Team Litigation about which method of dispute resolution should reign…

Background The Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“Act”) provides, in Section 37(2)(b), for an ‘appeal’ from an arbitral tribunal’s order on interim/provisional measures (“interim order”). It, however, does not stipulate the standard of review that the court must apply while reviewing an interim order. Sans any prescribed legislative standard, courts have two alternatives available: test…

The Hungarian Parliament recently passed new legislation on arbitration (Act LX of 2017 on Arbitration, the “2017 Act”) that will reform Hungarian arbitration law as of 1 January 2018. The 2017 Act, considering both the shortcomings of the current Hungarian legislation (Act LXXI of 1994 on Arbitration, the “1994 Act”) and the amendment of the…

So called “emergency arbitration” is raising considerable interest among international arbitration practitioners, as the importance of this tool aimed at protecting the parties’ rights either during the period between the filing of an arbitration request and the constitution of the arbitral tribunal or in the course of the proceedings, before the award is rendered, is…

International arbitration has been widely recognized as an efficient process for resolving State-to-State disputes. Factors such as procedural flexibility and party autonomy, which contribute to general appeal of international arbitration, play out to render arbitration as the preferable option for settlement of complex disputes between States. More importantly, however, the success and broader acceptance of…

The new Slovak Arbitration Act (“SAA”) was adopted by the Parliament (Act. No. 336/2014 Coll.), and is in force as of January 1, 2015. In order to see whether the SAA will promote Slovakia as an arbitration venue, main novelties and amendments brought by this new act are analysed in this blog entry. Arbitrability: Under…

Do international arbitrators have the power to overturn interim measures granted by a Brazilian court? Do Brazilian courts have the power to stay international arbitrations? A recent decision rendered in the Petroplus Sul Comércio Exterior S.A. (“Petroplus”) et al. v. First Brands do Brasil Ltda. et al. (“First Brands”) dispute has just provided its answer…

I. General Aspects of Enforceability English Worldwide Freezing Order (“WFO”) being called by Matthias Scherer and Simone Nadelhofer one of the “nuclear weapons” of commercial litigation and arbitration, is a preliminary injunction preventing a defendant from disposing of assets pending the resolution of the underlying substantive (arbitration or court) proceedings. Its issue in support of…

How can arbitrators ensure the fair exchange of documents, and what role should arbitrators play in calling expert witnesses? When and how, if at all, should interim measures be used in international arbitration proceedings? These questions were tackled during a breakout session titled Arbitral Legitimacy: The User’s and Judge’s Perspectives at the ICCA Miami 2014…

ICCA 2014’s second break-out session of Monday, 7 April, tackled the challenging issues surrounding document production and interim measures in international arbitration. The discussion was informative and the audience participated with pointed questions and comments. The first panel, which addressed the issue of document production, was comprised of Moderator John Barkett and Panelists Stephen L….

[Written with the assistance of Nina Tandon and Andrew Behrman of Hogan Lovells US LLP] A recent ruling from a U.S. federal district court has highlighted an emerging doctrine in United States courts with respect to a party’s ability to seek provisional remedies from a court in support of international arbitration. The recent ruling, together…

The Danish Institute of Arbitration (“DIA”) revised its rules effective May 1, 2013, an overhaul from the prior 2008 iteration of its rules that brings the DIA rules into line with those of leading arbitral institutions. As part of these revisions, the DIA has both reorganized the structure of its rules and updated various key…

The recent Portuguese Voluntary Arbitration Law, which has been in force since 14 March 2012, (English version available here), was received with great enthusiasm amongst the legal community, which claimed for a new arbitration law that could bring to Portugal a regulatory framework closer to the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration. The goal…

In the recent decision of PT Pukuafu Indah and others v. Newmont Indonesia Ltd and another ([2012] SGHC 187) the Singapore High Court (the Court) confirmed that it did not have jurisdiction to set aside an interim anti-suit injunction ordered by an arbitral tribunal. In reaching this decision, the Court added to a growing body…