The ITA (Institute for Transnational Arbitration) – ALARB (Latin American Society of Arbitration) Americas Workshop took place virtually on 2-4 December 2020. The conference focused on the role of arbitrators, their liabilities, challenges, and the need for increased diversity efforts. The conference was co-chaired by Julie Bédard (Skadden, New York), and Maria Inés Corrá (Bomchil, Buenos…

There was a time when arbitrators were to a large extent immune from liability and could thus not be sued before national courts for damages caused to the parties to a dispute. This was true mainly in common law jurisdictions and was probably the case in most civil law countries as well. For instance, under…

Arbitrators’ civil liability is not a topic that everyone within the arbitration community enjoys discussing. Therefore, it is not surprising that the approach to the concept of liability differs within the arbitration community. In cases where someone may face civil liability, the possibility to insure such risk arises. This blog post, therefore, will deal with…

Without any doubt, international commercial arbitration found its place in the system of international dispute settlement. Many natural and legal persons choose to solve their disputes via the means of arbitration and in most of the cases arbitration is international in many aspects: Parties are from different countries, arbitrators are of different nationalities, sitting in…

Back in 2010, an arbitral tribunal composed by Luis Ramallo García (chairman), Miguel Temboury and Santiago Gastón ordered Puma to pay € 98 million to Estudio 2000 for the wrongful termination of their distribution contract. Notably, Mr. Gastón – appointed by Puma – did not sign the award. It was later revealed that he was…

Liability in international arbitration is a recurrent yet unsettled issue. Occasionally, we hear of a fearless party that dares to sue an arbitrator and/or an arbitral institution based on allegations of a conflict of interest, procedural irregularity, error of law, or a failure to oversee the good conduct of the arbitration proceedings. The discussions prompted…