In January 2015, a new arbitration institution, under somewhat ambiguous name of the Civil Arbitration Court (“Parnični arbitražni sud”) [“CAC”], was established. The program and rules provided by the CAC reveal its dedication to provide parties with an alternative forum for the resolution of disputes related to small claims, as in accordance with the principles…
It has been some time since Judge Gunnar Lagergren – 52 years precisely – arbitrated a case (ICC No. 1110) whose underlying contract involved an agreement to pay bribes, and where he proffered a landmark award holding that “a case such as this, involving such gross violation of good morals and international public policy, can…
As Mariel Dimsey has observed, a key challenge posed by investment treaties is that – at the point of ratification – they expose States to arbitrations of ‘as-yet-unknown scope and against as-yet-unknown claimants’. Gus van Harten and Martin Loughlin argue that this feature differentiates investment disputes from those heard in other fora, transforming investment disputes into something akin to ‘domestic judicial review of state conduct’….
In September 2015 the UNCITRAL Working Group II (Arbitration and Conciliation) continued its work on formulating legal framework on the enforcement of settlement agreements, including a convention, model provisions or guidance texts. Currently, parties can request arbitration tribunals to record their settlement agreements as consent awards, i.e. an arbitral award on terms agreed upon by…
The Swiss Arbitration Association (“ASA”) has called recently for the creation of a transnational body, the Global Arbitration Ethics Council, to whom matters of alleged unethical conduct would be referred. This entity would provide a truly global solution to a global problem and overcome one of the main criticisms levelled against both the IBA Guidelines…
The Middle East is undergoing a period of extreme political, economic and social unrest. In modern Iraq, the chaos wrought by Da’esh is causing major difficulties for the government and for ordinary businesses and individuals. However, in the midst of this turmoil, on 18 November 2015, Iraq finally made good its promise by ratifying the…
Following a recent announcement of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) (see https://www.lcia.org//News/difc-lcia-arbitration-centre-relaunched-today.aspx), its Dubai-based sister organisation, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)-LCIA Arbitration Centre, re-launched its operations from a new location in the DIFC with effect from 18 November 2015. The move to the DIFC Gate Building, which has become an iconic landmark…
The issue of transparency is hardly a new topic in legal scholarship addressing international arbitration. Last year, in an important contribution to this blog, Loukas A. Mistelis broke with the conventional wisdom that investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS, is in need of court-like transparency, arguing that extending court-like transparency to arbitration “would not benefit the…
In the landscape of international investment arbitration the allegations of corruption have become more and more common. Confronted with investor’s claims before an arbitral tribunal, host states employ all possible legal arguments available to avoid potential liability and the subsequent payment of compensation. Investor’s corrupt acts have emerged as a potentially viable state defense in…
It is fair to say that arbitration is already a widespread dispute mechanism in Portugal, broadly used not only for commercial disputes but also for disputes in other areas such as, for example, consumer, administrative and tax disputes. As for intellectual property, the possibility of submitting disputes to arbitration has been a reality in Portugal…
Public policy remains one of the most popular grounds used by the parties to oppose the recognition and enforcement of an arbitral award. Its vague content also makes its application in court greatly challenging – academics still refer to public policy as the “unruly horse”. This creates a significant responsibility for the courts to find…
Recently, Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and Columbia University professor, warned about the dangers of TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership). “We know we’re going to need regulations to restrict the emissions of carbon,” Stiglitz said. “But under these provisions, corporations can sue the government, including the American government, by the way, so it’s all the governments…
A ruling of the Austrian Supreme Court, the Oberste Gerichtshof in Vienna, Austria, of earlier this year (see ruling of 18 February 2015, 2 Ob 22/14w) raises anew the much debated question of the type and intensity of supervisory court review of European Union (EU) competition law awards. Readers may recall that EU competition law…
“ISDS” (short for “investor-state dispute settlement”) was a less-known acronym some years back. Now, it has been given an increasingly bad name, no doubt fuelled by Vattenfall’s claim against Germany following the shutting down of its nuclear plants after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, tobacco giant Philip Morris’ high profile claims arising from Australia’s plain-labelling laws,…
The recently promulgated Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Ordinance 2015 (the “Ordinance”) marks a significant change in the arbitration landscape of India. Most significantly, the Ordinance (a statutory enactment in exercise of an extraordinary power granted to the President to act when the parliament is not in session) seeks to restrain judicial intervention in arbitration and…
Drafted by HSF Partner, Mathias Wittinghofer, and Associates, Tilmann Hertel and Nils Kupka, from HSF’s Frankfurt office In 1999 Germany adopted the UNCITRAL Model law on International Commercial Arbitration (“ML”), but with a material addition: German law stipulates that prior to the constitution of the arbitral tribunal an application can be made to a German…
The New York Times has just published a three-part series of investigative articles about arbitration practice in the United States, casting it as machine of repeat-players used by large companies to deprive ordinary citizens of access to justice. It is a pity the writers did not look deeper under the hood of that machine. Had…
Introduction On 1 January 2016, the Act on Promoting Amicable Dispute Resolution Methods (dated 10 September 2015, published on 13 October 2015, Official Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland, item 1595), available in Polish here (“Amendment”), which was a subject of my previous post, will come into force. The Amendment is the first…
The results of the 2015 Queen Mary and White & Case International Arbitration Survey were launched on 6 October 2015. Titled “Improvements and Innovations in International Arbitration”, the survey seeks to explore how recent efforts to improve international arbitration are faring, and the arbitration community’s assessment of other innovations to the arbitral process. Views were…
Fellow Kluwer arbitration blogger, Duarte Henriques, recently started a Facebook page dedicated to discussing topical issues in international arbitration. The page regularly features “memes” all aspects of the practice. Below are a few. When international arbitration meets social media, no one is spared. – – – – – – – – – – – –…
The Russian company law is contained in three main sources: in Chapter 4 of the Russian Civil Code, and two special laws – on joint-stock companies (AOs) of 25.12.1995 and on limited liability companies (OOOs) of 08.02.1998 – both based on the Civil Code. The prevailing part of the company law contained in the Civil…
One of the main and well known advantages of arbitration is the speed of the proceedings. In order to enhance their timeliness and efficiency, the Rules of some arbitral institutions (e.g. Art. 33 of the ICC Rules) provide for the so called “scrutiny of the award” – a procedure of formal examination of the draft…
The Report of the International Finance Corporation [IFC] “Investing Across Borders” for the year 2010 outlined that a stable, predictable arbitration regime, as a part of broader framework for the rule of law, is one of the factors that drive foreign investment and it should be country’s top priority. Despite the fact that reforming an…
On July 18, 2014 the Cassation Court – the highest court in Armenia, in the case EKD/1910/02/13 delivered a decision (“Decision”) which paralyzed the whole arbitration system in the country. In the mentioned case the Cassation Court (“Court”) needed to answer a question whether an arbitral tribunal was entitled to decide the matter of invalidity…
