Artificial Intelligence, HKIAC Rules, Investment Arbitration, NAFTA, SCC Rules, Singapore, Summary Judgment, Summary procedure, Third party funding, TPPA

(Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP)/ /2 Comments
YSIAC

2017 was a busy year for international arbitration. Taking a walk down memory lane, we saw new players and new industries entering the game, institutions adopting new rules, and we have some new challenges to tackle. This note summarizes some highlights and low lights in international arbitration during 2017 from across the globe. Happy Holidays…

Arbitration, Arbitrator Intelligence, Arbitrators, Diversity

(Arbitrator Intelligence)/ /Leave a comment
Arbitrator Intelligence

A strange paradox marks the debate about international arbitrator diversity. Public consensus increasingly reflects a pervasive concern about the lack of diversity among international arbitrators. ArbitralWomen can claim much credit for focusing attention on the lack of gender diversity, as evidenced by now more than 2500 signatures on The Pledge. Meanwhile, many corporate users now…

Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Counsel conduct, Ethics

(Herbert Smith Freehills LLP)/ /Leave a comment
Herbert Smith Freehills

The lack of consensus on ethical standards of conduct for counsel in international arbitration has given rise to two enduring problems. First, lawyers may find it hard to know how they should act where the professional rules of their home jurisdiction differ from, or conflict with, those at the seat of arbitration. Second, parties themselves…

Arbitration, Kluwer Arbitration Blog

(Stockholm University)/ /Leave a comment

In January 2018, Kluwer Arbitration Blog will enter its 9th year of existence and we are pleased to see the Blog developing into such a successful forum of international arbitration. The scope of the Blog – as unveiled in 2009 – is to include high quality discussions on international arbitration, commercial and investment related, and…

Journal of International Arbitration

(WilmerHale & Queen Mary University of London)/ /Leave a comment

Issue 34/6 ARTICLES SECTION Mauro Rubino Sammartano, A Second (Quasi-Perfect?) Storm Also in Arbitration? Abstract: Many users of international arbitration, particularly in-house counsel, have repeatedly expressed concern about the lack of adequate information on arbitrators, resulting in arbitrator selection based on a vague and general reputation often informed by word of mouth or anecdotal information….

Conflicts of interest, Third party funding

(Clasen, Caribé & Casado Filho Sociedade de Advogados)/ /2 Comments

Arbitration, especially in its international perspective, has experienced such a tremendous growth in the past few decades that it has now become a victim of its own success. Current debates are centered on the prohibitive costs, the difficulty in finding high-level arbitrators and conflicts of interests often exclusive to relatively diminished groups, demonstrating that themes…

ICSID, ICSID Arbitration, Spain

(Bottega Di Bella)/ /Leave a comment

A court of a Contracting State shall recognize an ICSID award as binding and enforce pecuniary obligations per that award within its territory as if it were a final judgment of the court in that State. The enforcement creditor is not required to obtain a declaration of enforceability (viz. the exequatur). At the same time,…

Enforcement of an award that was set aside

(Albright StoneBridge Group)/ /3 Comments

On the 24th of November, the Supreme Court of The Netherlands issued a judgment pertaining to the request for enforcement of an award annulled at the seat, Russia. The Supreme Court applied Article V(1)(e) of the New York Convention (hereinafter the “NYC”) and refused to enforce the award in favor of Nikolay Viktorovich Maximov for…

India, Public Policy

(Central European University, Budapest)/ /1 Comment

On 1 November 2017, a division bench of the Supreme Court of India (hereinafter SCI) referred the matter between Venture Global Engineering LLC and Tech Mahindra Ltd. to a larger bench, in view of the diverging opinions emerging from the division bench. In substance, the SCI was looking at the legality of the order of…

Ad hoc arbitration, Arbitration, Arbitration Act, Arbitrators, China, CIETAC

(Zhong Lun Law Firm)/ /1 Comment

On 30 December 2016, the Supreme People’s Court of China (“SPC”) released Opinion on Providing Judicial Protection for the Development of the Pilot Free-Trade Zones (“Opinion”), which was regarded as allowing ad hoc arbitration in China. On 23 March 2017, the Management Committee of Hengqin New Zone and Zhuhai Arbitration Commission (“ZAC”) jointly published the…

DIFC, DIFC conduit jurisdiction, Dubai

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

A recent decision of the Dubai-DIFC Judicial Tribunal (the “JT”) (see Cassation No. 6/2017 (JT) – Assas Investments Limited v. Fius Capital Limited) – even though not quite a saving grace – appears to throw a lifeline to the DIFC Courts in their role as a conduit jurisdiction. Regular readers of this Blog will recall…

Arbitration, Arbitration Industry, Hong Kong, KCAB, South Korea, UNCITRAL Model Law

, (Bae, Kim & Lee LLC)/ /1 Comment
Bae, Kim & Lee LLC

Arbitration Industry Promotion Act of Korea In South Korea, the Arbitration Industry Promotion Act (“Promotion Act”), which was enacted on 27 December 2016, finally took effect on 28 August 2017. The purpose of this legislation is to promote arbitral procedures within Korea by expanding required infrastructures such as dispute resolution facilities, arbitration professionals, arbitration system,…

Damages, Expropriation, ICSID Arbitration, Latin America

(Herbert Smith Freehills)/ /Leave a comment

The latest decision in Bear Creek Mining Corp v Republic of Peru (ICSID Case No. ARB/14/21) presents some interesting takeaways for international investment arbitration case law.  This note briefly introduces the case’s relevant facts before addressing the reasoning of the Tribunal in relation to (i) illegality as a bar to investment protection, (ii) indirect expropriation,…

Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Enforcement, Enforcement of an arbitration clause, International arbitration, Set aside an arbitral award, Set aside an international arbitral award, Turkmenistan

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The specter of communism that was once lingering over the Europe has long faded away, and the alliance, one of the biggest socialist experiments in the history of mankind, that stood to safeguard and promote its ideals has failed. In 1991 out of the remains of the Soviet Union emerged five independent Central Asian states….

Brazil, Commercial Arbitration, kompetenz-kompetenz

, (Aprigliano Advogados)/ /Leave a comment

There is no doubt that Brazil is recognized world-wide as one of the most pro-arbitration nations. Brazilian law regulating arbitration is quite innovative, especially after its reform in 2015, which instated clear provisions on relevant topics such as interim measures, the effects of arbitration agreements contained in a company’s bylaws before its shareholders, and arbitration…

Annulment, Enforcement of an award that was set aside, United States

(Suffolk University Law School)/ /2 Comments

Several recent circuit-level decisions have shown that U.S. courts are willing to review a foreign court’s annulment of an arbitration award to determine whether the annulment conflicts with U.S. public policy. This exercise inherently involves normative judgments and leads to the question of whether U.S. courts may be “out of their depth” in making such…

Hong Kong, Singapore, The Netherlands, Third party funding

(Fieldfisher) and (Linklaters)/ /Leave a comment
Linklaters

On 1 September 2017, the ICCA QMUL Task Force on Third-Party Funding published its Draft Report for Public Discussion on Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration. The Task Force has developed principles with the aim of providing guidance to parties, counsel, arbitrators and national courts when facing third-party funding related issues arising in different contexts. Furthermore,…

CETA, CJEU, EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, European Commission, European Union, ISDS

(Schoenherr) and / /Leave a comment
Schoenherr

The European Commission (“EC”) has recently taken another step in its efforts to replace the traditional investor-state-dispute-settlement (“ISDS”) mechanism which underlies the approximately 1,400 bilateral investment agreements in force between EU Member States and third countries. On 13 September 2017, the EC issued, based on Article 218(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the…

Appointment of arbitrators, Canada, Conference, Diversity, national court, North America, Transparency, Transparency in investment arbitrations, UK, United States

(Willoughby & Hoefer)/ /Leave a comment

On the heels of a year that has seen the rise of populist nationalism, skepticism of multilateral trade agreements and calls to tighten in some ways the flow of people across borders – perhaps most visibly in the United States and across Europe, but with manifestations elsewhere – many communities saw a retreat from international…

Arbitration, Execution, ISDS, State Immunity

(Durham Law School), (Roschier Attorneys, Ltd.), and (Stockholm University)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction This short note briefly touches upon two enforcement issues pertaining to third-party funding in international arbitration, one more ventilated than the other. It is hoped that our comments on these issues will be perceived as an insightful contribution to an already ignited debate, with the caveat that we provide for a discussion rather than…

Mediation, Uncategorized

(Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London)/ /Leave a comment

Ireland’s new mediation law, a strategy for the implementation of mediation within the Ukrainian court system, the lessons emerging from the Global Pound Conferences, developments in Online Dispute Resolution… these are just a handful of the topics which were addressed on the Kluwer Mediation Blog in November. Below you’ll find a very brief summary of…

b-Arbitra | Belgian Review of Arbitration

(Bird&Bird) and (Tossens Goldman Gonne)/ /Leave a comment

It is with great pleasure that we present to you this first issue of b-Arbitra 2017. You will note that we have acquired a new cover, and what is more: a new publisher: Wolters Kluwer. We are very excited about our new cooperation, which we consider fits well with our aim to be a first-class…

Arbitration, Australia, ISDS, New Zealand

(University of Auckland) and (University of Sydney & Williams Trade Law)/ /Leave a comment

New Zealand now officially opposes investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), thanks to the election of a new centre-left Labour-led coalition government that took office in October 2017. In a post-Cabinet press conference on 31 October, Prime Minister Jacinda Adern announced that: “We remain determined to do our utmost to amend the ISDS provisions of TPP. In…

China, Reciprocity, Recognition and enforcement of arbitral award

(King & Wood Mallesons)/ /Leave a comment
YSIAC

There have been a number of recent developments in Chinese judicial practice. These include the first known enforcement of foreign court judgments in China on the basis of reciprocity,1)References to the enforcement of foreign court judgments are generally intended to include recognition and enforcement of those judgments. as well as China’s signing of the Hague…