As Latin America welcomes left-leaning political regimes, the region’s regulatory landscape undertakes an increasingly uncertain state for foreign investors. In terms of cross-border investment dynamics, Latin America’s history has demonstrated that its embrace or lack thereof is shaped by cycles of political and economic regimes. Thus, a wave of direct or indirect expropriations, regulatory overreaches,…
Arbitration can be defined as a dispute resolution mechanism by which parties submit their case to a specifically chosen decision-maker to render a binding decision. Arbitration is a consensual procedure and can only be initiated if parties have agreed to do so. As most arbitration laws, the Brazilian Arbitration Act (“BAA”) provides for the enforceability…
On May 9, 2023, the Arbitration Channel, a pioneer Brazilian institution in the dissemination and promotion of arbitration internationally, held the XVII Rio de Janeiro International Arbitration Conference (“Rio Arbitration Conference” or “Congress”), curated by João Bosco Lee (Lee Taube Gabardo Sociedade de Advogados, Partner) Lauro Gama (Lauro Gama Advogados Associados, Partner) and Maurício Almeida…
Gustavo Piedrahita is an attorney with more than 15 years of professional experience. He received his law degree (LLB) from Universidad de la Sabana in Colombia and has a master’s degree in corporate law from Universidad Sergio Arboleda. He is a specialist in commercial, financial, and environmental law. Mr. Piedrahita acts as a domestic and…
On June 10, 2022, the Superior Court of Justice in Brazil (“STJ”) ruled on the conflict of competence No. 185.702/DF (“CC 185.702/DF”) under the premise that arbitration has a jurisdictional nature and, therefore the STJ has jurisdiction to decide conflict of competences between arbitral tribunals constituted pursuant to the rules of the same arbitral institution…
Despite being a relatively young market at just over 20 years old, Brazilian arbitration has experienced rapid growth. As of 2020, Brazil ranked second in the number of arbitrations filed with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), surpassing all European, African, and Asian jurisdictions. Brazil is also among the top five nationalities represented among arbitrators,…
Despite the good results obtained for several years in its defense from investment arbitration claims, the Republic of Peru has become one of the countries with the highest number of arbitration claims filed against it. To date, nineteen cases have concluded, and twenty-three cases are pending resolution. In December 2022, an award was issued in…
On March 7, 2023, the virtual conference organized by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), as well as the Latin American Arbitration Association (ALARB) titled “Dispute Resolution in the Digital Economy” took place, within the context of UNCITRAL’s Working Group II works on dispute resolution and digital economy. During this conference, arbitration…
On 3 February 2023, Colombia and Venezuela entered into an Agreement for the Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments (“Treaty”), with the objective of “incrementing the flow of transborder direct investment.” Both states are still to complete the ratification procedure for the Treaty to enter into force. This is an interesting development, especially considering the…
This post addresses the recognition and enforcement of foreign awards in Colombia and summarizes two important cases decided in 2022 by the Civil Chamber of the Colombian Supreme Court of Justice (“Court”) on the matter. These cases illustrate the process of analysis undertaken by the Court to decide requests for recognition and enforcement of foreign…
After thirteen years, the Arbitration Center of Mexico (“CAM”), one of the most prominent arbitration centers in Mexico, revised its Arbitration Rules (the “Rules”). The purpose of these amendments is to adapt the Rules to global changes and address the needs of its users that have arisen since the last version in 2009. The 2022…
On December 20, 2022, Chile’s Supreme Court issued a ruling that has been praised by the arbitral community for its pro-arbitration stance in the face of an apparently pathological arbitration clause. In its decision, the highest court of Chile lent decisive support to key international arbitration principles, such as party autonomy, domestic minimum intervention and…
2022 was a year of change and action with important developments in investment arbitration in Latin America. The region continues to top the ICSID investment arbitration caseload, accounting for 28% of the total of registered cases by June 2022. In 2022, states and arbitral institutions sought to modernize investment protections and their institutional frameworks. In…
The 2022 report of Colombia’s National Agency for Legal Defense of the State (the “Agency”) provides insightful information about costs in investment arbitration (the “2022 Report”). Based on a statistical analysis, it (i) establishes current trends and criteria in connection with the allocation of costs in investment arbitration, and (ii) determines the average costs of an…
On October 17, 2022, the Secretary General of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (“PCA”) and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Ecuador (“Ecuador”) signed in Quito a “Host Country Agreement” (the “Agreement”). This news has been well received, both in the Ecuadorian and the international arbitration community. It is also the culmination of…
A slate of recent cases reminded us how important are the doctrines of res judicata and/or collateral estoppel. Put simply, res judicata is known as claim preclusion because a judicial judgment or arbitral award deciding a particular “claim” will be binding on the parties who participated in that proceeding, whereas collateral estoppel is known as…
The Commercial Court of Appeals in the City of Buenos Aires recently granted a request for preliminary measures. These measures aimed to obtain the necessary elements to analyze and determine whether the counterparty had breached a stock purchase agreement that included an arbitration clause as the dispute-settlement mechanism. In this post, we discuss whether courts…
On September 19, 2022, the Guatemalan Congress enacted the Act for Promotion of Investment of Foreign Capital, 46-2022 (Ley de Fomento de Inversión de Capital Extranjero) (the “Act”), which came into force on September 27, 2022. The Act aims to promote investment projects from foreign capital in Guatemala. The Act gives special treatment to foreign…
Between 17-23 October 2022, the São Paulo Arbitration Week (“SPAW”) was held with multiple events in different parts of the biggest city of Latin America. The SPAW is a collaborative event, organized by Center for Arbitration and Mediation of the Chamber of Commerce Brazil-Canada (“CAM-CCBC”), and is conceived as a calendar for law firms, universities,…
The IXth Edition of the CAM-CCBC Arbitration Congress took place on 17 – 18 October 2022, in São Paulo, Brazil. The congress brought together practitioners to discuss “the today and the tomorrow” of the arbitration market. After two years of pandemic, the convention provided a unique forum to debate a wide range of topics, including…
On 17 and 18 October 2022, the Center for Arbitration and Mediation of the Chamber of Commerce Brazil-Canada held its IXth Arbitration Congress (“IX CAM-CCBC Congress” or “Congress”) in São Paulo. The Congress is the opening event of what became the Sao Paulo Arbitration Week (“SPAW”): a collaborative calendar for law firms, universities, associations, and…
This year’s ITA-ALARB Americas Workshop took place in early September and focused on the intersection between domestic environmental protections and international investment law. The workshop was co-chaired by Gabriela Álvarez Ávila (Partner, DLA Piper) and Miguel López Forastier (Partner, Covington & Burling). The aim of the workshop was to address, from the perspective of states…
In line with current discussions in Brazil’s arbitration community, especially in the context of Brazilian party leaders’ initiative to call for a vote on a controversial bill to amend the Brazilian Arbitration Act (“BAA“) on an urgent basis (previously covered here), one of the panels focused on the controversy of whether information regarding corporate arbitral proceedings…
In line with its overarching theme of “Arbitration, Corporate Law & ESG”, on September 29, 2022 the CBAr’s 21st International Arbitration Conference hosted a panel on disputes arising under M&A contracts. Julian Chediak moderated a prolific, technical, and practical discussion with Gabriel Buschinelli, Rodrigo Octávio Broglia Mendes and Jennifer Permesly regarding various aspects of M&A…
