On 26 June 2015 Italy commenced inter-state arbitral proceedings by serving on India a notification of dispute under Article 287 and Annex VII, Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“UNCLOS”); both States are Parties to UNCLOS. In Italy’s submission the dispute concerns an incident approximately 20.5 nautical miles…

By Resolution of 27 March 2014, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly condemned the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity (A/RES/68/262). The Security Council remained, however, powerless to impose against Russia economic sanctions which all UN member States would have had to implement. In the absence of such “multilateral” sanctions, the European Union (EU) and the…

UNCITRAL’s Working Group II (Arbitration and Conciliation) will begin its 47th session today, July 7 , in New York. Among the items to be discussed is a proposal for a multilateral convention on the enforceability of international commercial settlement agreements reached through mediation. (See also this link.) The proposal, which has been put forth by…

Last year, international media reported that the Ministry of Defense of Iran and Aerospace Industries Organization have commenced an arbitration against their Russian state-owned defense contractor Rosoboronexport over the latter’s refusal to deliver five batteries of the potent S-300 surface-to-air missiles under the contract signed back in 2007. Following the adoption of UN Security Council…

There are some interesting comments in the live blog of the UNCTAD International Investment Agreements Conference from the likes of Todd Weiler, Susan Franck, and Jason Yackee. (You can also watch the proceedings here). Much substance in the coverage, but also some fun. Here’s a taste: Todd Weiler: As I see Prof Franck is performing…

International claims settlement involves a number of challenges that are relevant for the international arbitration community, including fact-finding and burden of proof, principles of State responsibility, treaty interpretation and damages under international law. One recent development of note involves Israel’s recent settlement of a claim brought by the United Nations. In July 2009, the United…

The question of the existence of legal protection for foreign investors under customary international law has always been controversial. States have indeed entered into BITs precisely because of the lack of development of relevant custom rules in the field of international investment law. It is nonetheless largely agreed today that some rules of customary law…

1. Is Arbitral Jurisprudence anything more than a myth? 2. How does persuasiveness of past awards operate? 3. Is Precedent the product of the intrinsic qualities of one or more particularly well-reasoned awards? 4. Why do arbitral awards need to be available? 5. Why is reliance on arbitral precedents not frequent? 6. Should all awards…

By now almost everyone in the international arbitration world is aware of the gavel-to-gavel coverage of the oral pleadings in the so-called Abyei Arbitration before the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The case included many of the leading lights of international arbitration, including Pierre-Marie Dupuy, Stephen Schwebel, and Michael Reisman among the arbitrators, and James Crawford,…