This blog post covers UNCITRAL’s current work on adjudication, whose declared goal is to ensure enforcement of decisions concluding the adjudication procedure, especially in the context of cross-border, long-term projects. The post first gives an overview of the model clauses drafted by UNCITRAL, explaining the role played by the UNCITRAL Expedited Arbitration Rules (“Expedited Rules“)….

On 9 July 2021, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, better known as UNCITRAL, reached another milestone in its 55-year history. The Commission adopted the 2021 Expedited Arbitration Rules (“EAR”) (subject to completion, without objection, of a silence procedure). The EAR modify certain aspects of the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules (“UAR”) and must be…

The story of counsel ethics in international arbitration is very much like Cinderella’s fairytale. Once the clock struck midnight, all that remained was her glass slipper. This left the prince to search the kingdom for a maiden with the perfect fit for a “happily ever after”. Counsel ethics in international arbitration similarly involve an ongoing…

In CBS v CBP [2021] SGCA 4 the Singapore Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s ruling in CBP v CBS [2020] SGHC 23, being a rare example of the Singapore Courts setting aside an award. The arbitrator’s decision not to allow a hearing for oral witness evidence was found to be a breach of…

On April 19, 2021, the Secretariats of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) released the second draft of the Code of Conduct for Adjudicators in International Investment Disputes, a key feature of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) reform process which is presently under…

The dispute involving the State of Libya and French company SORELEC was heard by the Paris Court of Appeal in the context of a much lower tolerance for bribery and corruption in domestic and international affairs than ever before. France has indeed significantly strengthened its anti-corruption framework since adopting the so-called “Sapin II” law in…

Next week, the seventy-second session of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law’s (“UNCITRAL”) Working Group II (“WG II”), considering the issue of expedited arbitration, will be held in a hybrid system, with participants being able to take part in the session either in person, in Vienna, or remotely, via an online platform. The…

Just like many of us have learned to work remotely these past few months, those leading the efforts to reform international arbitration have also had to endure the constraints imposed by the pandemic. At the first-ever virtual ITA-ASIL conference, held on 24 June 2020, Professor Chiara Giorgetti from the University of Richmond School of Law…

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…

Located in the heart of Brussels, Europe’s capital and home to international organisations such as NATO, CEPANI, the Belgian Centre for Arbitration and Mediation, was founded on 25 September 1969. At that time, Belgium had just acceded to the Geneva Convention and was exploring ways to update its obsolete legal arbitration framework. Much has changed…

Overview On 11 February 2019, Beijing Arbitration Commission/Beijing International Arbitration Center (‘BAC/BIAC’) launched its draft of ‘Beijing Arbitration Commission/Beijing International Arbitration Center International Investment Arbitration Rules’ (the ‘BAC Rules’) for public comments, comprised of its main text and six appendixes. The BAC Rules are the second investment arbitration rules promulgated by a Chinese international arbitration…

On 6 November 2018, the ICC, in collaboration with Al Tamimi & Company, hosted the first Kuwait Arbitration Day. This involved practitioners from across the Middle East and beyond coming together and discussing the latest developments and trends within arbitration. The event attracted over 100 participants who attended despite the day being announced as an…

The 5th Annual ITA-IEL-ICC Joint Conference on International Energy Arbitration was held in Houston last month, and the focus was on the year past and the year ahead in the arbitration of international disputes in the energy industry. From the topics discussed, predictions rendered and questions raised at the conference, attendees departed considering whether the…

The US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit’s Thai-Lao Lignite (Thailand) v. Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic The friction between a seat and an enforcement forum, i.e. between annulment and enforcement continues. An arbitral award in the Thai-Lao Lignite (Thailand) v. Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic case (“Thai Lao Lignite…

In early March 2017, the Singapore High Court released a judgment in which it considered an important question of enforcement of investor-state awards. In Josias Van Zyl v Kingdom of Lesotho [2017] SGHCR 2, AR Pereira was asked to decide whether an order to enforce a final award in a treaty dispute administered by the…

The international arbitration community has lately been occupied with various proposals to reform investor-state disputes. On the interstate level, a consensus seems to be building that several aspects of the current system need to be modified in order for the system to safeguard its own legitimacy. In this context, there are various reform proposals floated…

“When Justice Delayed Would be Justice Denied: Emergency Arbitrators and Interim Measures in International Arbitration” was the subject of the 28th Annual Workshop of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA), which took place on 16 June 2016 in Dallas, Texas. Under the leadership of ITA’s Chair, Abby Cohen Smutny (White & Case), and the conference…

by Esmé Shirlow (Assistant Editor for Australia & New Zealand)   Gabriele Ruscalla has recently observed that “transparency has become a fundamental principle in international adjudication”. The transparency paradigms governing different types of international adjudication are, however, far from uniform. Discussions of transparency in international arbitration typically begin, for example, from a distinction between commercial and investment treaty disputes. As Cristoffer Nyegaard Mollestad explains…

Dear Readers, you may have noticed the dearth of recent posts, for which we make no excuses. It is late summer for the northern hemisphere contributors. At this point, most of us are lingering poolside at the Kluwer International Arbitration Resort and Amusement Park, sipping procedural cocktails in the waning light as the children take…

On 17 March 2015, the UN Convention on Transparency in Treaty-Based Investor-State Arbitration was opened for signature. So far, nine countries have signed the treaty (among them, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States). The Convention will enter into force six months after the first three instruments of ratification have been deposited…

On 29 September 2014, the Calcutta High Court in Board of Trustees of the Port of Kolkata v. Louis Dreyfus Armaturs SAS & Ors delivered the first decision by an Indian Court on a case directly arising from an investment treaty arbitration. The case concerns an anti-arbitration injunction sought against Louis Dreyfus Armateurs SAS (“LDA”),…

The HKIAC has recently updated its 2005 Procedures for the Administration of Arbitration under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules (the 2005 Procedures). This is one of several measures the HKIAC has taken in recent years to refine and improve its arbitration offerings. The new procedures incorporate both innovations in HKIAC practice and recent revisions to the…

An arbitral award (PCA Case No. 2011-17, 31 January 2014) arising out of the nationalisation of an electricity generation business in Bolivia has provided useful guidance on: (1) the ability of multiple investor claimants to bring joint claims against a state under separate BITs in a single proceeding; and (2) the time at which a…

By Carmen Núñez-Lagos and Javier García Olmedo In an award rendered on 31 January 2014, an arbitral tribunal constituted under the UNCITRAL Rules declined jurisdiction over the claims brought by one of two claimants against the Plurinational State of Bolivia on the basis of the application of a denial of benefits clause in the US-Bolivia…