Drawing a well-defined line of demarcation between domestic and international public policy when enforcing foreign arbitral awards sends a clear pro-arbitration message from national courts in any jurisdiction. Does Hungarian case law come close to this level of sophistication? This post analyses this question in the context of procedural public policy, and it does so…

The United States Supreme Court’s June 2020 decision in GE Energy Power Conversion France SAS v. Outokumpu Stainless USA, LLC (“GE Energy“) made clear that, under U.S. law, a non-signatory to an arbitration agreement may invoke equitable estoppel to compel arbitration under Article II(3) of the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of…

In a series of recent posts (Part I, Part II and Part III), I argued that states should not ratify the Hague Choice of Court Agreements Convention (“Convention”) and, if they had already done so, that they should denounce the Convention.  Two good friends, Trevor Hartley and João Ribeiro-Bidaoui, recently responded on Kluwer Arbitration Blog…

This post continues from Part I. Party Autonomy and Consent:  How the Convention Undermines Them My previous posts argued that the Convention undermines vital protections that existing law provides for party autonomy and genuine consent.  In response, Mr. Ribeiro argues that the Convention advances notions of party autonomy: it supposedly serves to “enable parties to…

Gary Born, in a three-part series in Kluwer Arbitration Blog last month, addressed why States should not participate in the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice Of Court Agreements (“Hague Convention”). We assume that readers are familiar with Mr. Born’s posts (available as Part I, Part II, and Part III), and so we will confine ourselves to recalling this…

The HCCH 2005 Choice of Court Convention (“Convention“), adopted over fifteen years ago, has recently become the subject of damning criticism from Gary Born in a series of posts published on the Blog (see Part I, Part II, and Part III). In the series, Born dramatically suggests that states bound by the Convention should denounce…

The 2005 Choice-of-Court Agreements Convention (“Convention”) has been widely promoted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law (“Hague Conference”) and others.  This post continues the discussion in two prior posts (Part I and Part II) in this series which argued that it was inappropriate to transpose the New York Convention’s basis structure and terms…

The 2005 Convention on Choice-of-Court Agreements (“Convention”) has been vigorously endorsed by the Hague Conference on Private International Law (“Hague Conference”) and others as an alternative to the New York Convention, appropriate for ratification by all states. The first post in this series discusses the Convention’s drafting history and proponents’ claim that the Convention ensures…

Over the past decade, the 2005 Convention on Choice-of-Court Agreements (“Convention”) has been vigorously promoted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law’s Permanent Bureau, the European Union and others.  The Convention has been endorsed as a global instrument, appropriate for ratification by all states, that establishes an alternative to international arbitration for the resolution…

In a landmark ruling in PASL Wind Solutions Private Limited v. GE Power Conversion,1)Special Leave Petition (Civil) 3936 of 2021 (arising out of GHC judgment dated November 11, 2020), Supreme Court of India Judgment dated April 20, 2021. India’s Supreme Court rejected the argument that the designation of a foreign seat between two Indian parties…

Exceptional times call for exceptional measures. We have all been experiencing a global pandemic for almost a year now. In an era where the legal exception tends to become the mainstream rule, one is left to wonder how far can this reversal of odds go. Is the global public health crisis susceptible to calling into…

Approximately a year ago, on 19 December 2019, the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Costa Rica recognized an ICC arbitration award rendered on 10 June 2016 by a tribunal seated in Miami. This case, one of the very few where the New York Convention (“NY Convention”) has been applied by a State court…

We initiate our traditional Year in review series of 2020 with a retrospective view of the reported developments in the Sub-Saharan Africa. In this post, we aim at giving you a quick look back to some of our most impactful publications in 2020 from this geographical area, with a focus on the commercial arbitration developments…

Day three of New York Arbitration Week 2020 featured a panel discussion on non-signatories in arbitration sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators New York Branch and the New York International Arbitration Center (NYIAC). The session was broken into two parts: compelling arbitration (before arbitration) and enforcing an award (after arbitration), each framed by the…

The issue of adjournment of enforcement proceedings relating to foreign arbitral awards that are subject to setting aside proceedings has featured prominently before national courts in recent years and has been the subject of other contributions on this blog (see here and here). This topic is especially significant in the Netherlands, an important jurisdiction for…

Electronic signatures (e-signatures) may affect in some cases arbitration’s most valuable characteristic: the enforceability of the arbitral award. In most jurisdictions, and in particular pursuant to Article 31(1) of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, arbitral awards must be rendered in writing and contain the arbitrators’ signatures. The enforceability risks of authenticating an arbitral…

The obligation of contracting states to recognize arbitration agreements and refer the parties to arbitration is provided in Article II of the New York Convention 1958 (the ‘Convention’). This post will endeavor to evaluate the meaning of the phrase ‘refer the parties to arbitration’ used in Article II(3) of the Convention and whether this phrase…

12th August 2020 marks the 21st anniversary of the Indonesia’s Law Number 30 Year 1999 on Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution (“Arbitration Law”).1)Any comments/views expressed in this article are those of the authors only. They do not reflect the views of KarimSyah Law Firm or AIAC unless otherwise stated. Culture wise, many countries, especially Indonesia, venerate…

On 12 June 2020, the Kingdom of Tonga (“Tonga“) acceded to the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958 (the “Convention“), being the 164th state party to do so. In the context of the Pacific region, Tonga is the 6th state to accede to the Convention after the Marshall…

On February 27, 2020, the Third Division of the Colombian Council of State (“Court”) issued a judgment resolving an annulment petition submitted by a state-owned company’s subsidiary against an international arbitral award. In its judgment, the Court decided to annul the award due to the Tribunal’s failure to comply with the agreed arbitral procedure. In…

Conducting all or parts of a hearing in the form of a virtual hearing has become a daily reality for many arbitrators, parties, and witnesses as the COVID pandemic continues to disrupt the legal practice. But as countries gradually ease out of lockdown and find their way into a “new” normal, it may be worth…

An award set-side underlines that it has been annulled in the jurisdiction in which it has been rendered. The grounds for setting aside an award are provided by the UNCITRAL Model Law and are quite similar throughout numerous jurisdictions. Article V of the New York Convention (‘NYC’) presents a set-aside award as one of the…

This post analyses the recent developments in enforcement of foreign awards in India that were discussed during the Delos’ Tagtime webinar by Mr. Gourab Banerji SA.1) who was “tagged” by Sir Bernard Eder. Mr. Banerji then “tagged” his colleague from the Nigerian Bar Ms. Funke Adekoya SAN to appear in the next Tagtime webinar by…

Three recent decisions of the Courts of Appeal in Singapore and England (BNA v BNB and another [2019] SGCA 84 (“BNA v BNB”); Kabab-JI S.A.L v Kout Food Group [2020] EWCA Civ 6 (“Kabab v Kout”); and Enka Insaat Ve Sanayi A.S. v OOO “Insurance Company Chubb” and others [2020] EWCA Civ 574 (“Enka v…