The controversial dispute between the Ecuadorian government and the multinational corporation Chevron arose from the operations undertaken by Texpet –a subsidiary of Texaco at that time- on the country’s Amazon region during the eighties. Texpet was the operator undertaking the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in association with Petroecuador, formerly CEPE, the state-owned oil company…
Ad hoc arbitration, in which the proceedings are administered by the disputing parties, their counsel and the arbitral tribunal without the involvement of an arbitral institution, can perhaps seem a daunting prospect in any jurisdiction. Thailand has arbitral institutions on hand to provide their services — including the well-established Thai Arbitration Institute (“TAI“) and the…
The National Commercial Arbitration Centre of the Kingdom of Cambodia (“NCAC”) was conceived in 2006, when Cambodia’s Commercial Arbitration Law entered into force. The initiative to create the centre surfaced as a part of Cambodia’s attempt to attract foreign investment on the one hand and to offer a viable alternative to domestic litigation to local…
Party autonomy is a well-established cornerstone of arbitration, which treats the parties as the true creators of the arbitral procedure. Hybrid arbitration clauses are built on this cornerstone. In a certain type of hybrid arbitration clause, the parties place the administration of arbitration in the hands of one arbitration institution by using the rules of…
Ever since the EU started to develop its investment policy, anti-ISDS groups started an unprecedented campaign. Indeed, on the very same day (7 July 2010) the European Commission published its first Communication on the EU’s investment policy, the anti-ISDS groups had a 100 page publication ready calling for the dismantling of international investment arbitration. Since…
Prior to 2012, India faced widespread criticism from the international arbitral community over a series of judgments concerning arbitration. Much has changed since 2012 – in the post-Bharat Aluminium (“BALCO”) era. A pro-arbitration approach by the judiciary was reflected in a series of judgments that came after the BALCO judgment, such as Reliance Industries (Reliance…
Co-Authored with Hanna Shalbanava (Sysouev, Bondar, Khrapoutski) According to paragraph 1.2.2. of the Guidelines for Arbitrators on how to approach the making of awards on interest adopted by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators “an arbitrator should make an award or awards of interest to cover two distinct periods (a) the period up to the date…
Keeping abreast of Australia’s stance on ISDS can be a confusing exercise. Australia’s approach to investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) continues to be hotly debated in the wake of recent revelations by Wikileaks that the investment chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is likely to include ISDS provisions. The Australian government’s stance on ISDS has undergone…
and Katherine Bell, Schellenberg Wittmer In 2014, the Swiss Supreme Court rendered 32 decisions on petitions to set aside international arbitral awards. Consistent with a traditionally low success rate, the Supreme Court granted only 4 of the 32 petitions. One of these four petitions was considered in a French-language decision dated 7 April 2014 (Decision…
The facts of the situation are simple: the claimant goes to the domestic courts and the defendant argues that there is an arbitral agreement. The court judge upholds the jurisdictional objection and refers the parties to arbitration but, once the arbitration proceedings are over, the claimant party appeals to have the award annulled on the…
and Alessa Pang, Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP Arbitrator challenges for inordinate delay can be awkward. However, what happens if the arbitrator decides to render an award before the challenge is concluded? Does rendering the award resolve the matter? Under Article 14(1) of the UNCITRAL Model Law (“Model Law”), an arbitrator’s mandate may be terminated…
This blog is adapted from a keynote speech delivered at the Helsinki International Arbitration Day on 28 May 2015. Most arbitration lawyers and users of arbitration services would probably agree that efficiency is a key issue in international arbitration, or that efficiency of arbitration is a key issue. However, these two ways of stating the…
Mediation has gained much popularity in Croatia in the last several years, and the Croatian legislator regulated enforceability of mediation in Article 18 of the Croatian Mediation Act (Official Gazette No. 18/2011, “the MA”). The solutions provided in the MA are to a large extent resembling the solutions in the UNCITRAL Model Law on International…
The Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Poland prepared and published a draft act (“the Draft Law”) (a draft law on promoting amicable dispute resolution methods, available in Polish here ). The Draft Law proposes amendments to the Polish Arbitration Law (part five of the Polish Code of Civil Procedure (“CCP”), Official Journal of…
and Ian Hopkinson, Clyde & Co At above US$60 per barrel, crude oil prices have bounced a little since their January 2015 low. However, with continued mixed indications concerning US production, opinion remains divided on where prices will end up in the short to medium term. As the recent GAR Live Energy Disputes event (held…
The Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Dispute Resolution Board Foundation are implementing dispute avoidance and resolution provisions in a unique way across 35 contracts for this upcoming international event. Successful delivery for these high profile projects is critical, since there is no possibility of delay to completion of the contracts, and everything…
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ordered a fund management committee (‘SBC’) to arbitrate its dispute with Navistar International (‘Navistar’) – at Navistar’s request – despite the fact that Navistar refused SBC’s own request for arbitration, ignored SBC’s formal notice of arbitration, and then litigated SBC’s claim in court for over a year (Art…
On 25 March 2015 the Court of Cassation of France handed down a new decision dealing with the so called “unilateral”, “optional”, “hybrid”, and “asymmetrical” jurisdiction clauses giving choice to one contractual party where to bring action against the other. Earlier in 2012, the same court issued the much discussed Rothschild decision which stated that…
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and should not be regarded as representative of, or binding upon ArbitralWomen and/or the author’s law firm. In previous posts, contributors have addressed the lack of gender diversity in arbitration. One post discussed the low percentage of women arbitrators in commercial and investment…
Over the past few years, the business community has discovered a new form of investment: this new type of capital formation is broadly known as investment in cryptocurrencies. The capital interest in these investments involves large financial institutions such as investment banks, rating services, assets management and consultancy agencies. According to the CoinDesk, the short…
In April 1976, an event now known as the Pound Conference ignited modern ADR in the USA, launching discussion of what may have become the “greatest reform in the history of the country’s judicial system”.1 Forty years later, all stakeholders in the dispute prevention and resolution fields around the world are being invited to participate…
On 13 May 2015, the CJEU handed down judgment in Gazprom (C-536/13). As readers will recall, the case concerns whether an EU court must refuse to give effect to an anti-suit award granted by an EU seated arbitral tribunal on the basis that such a measure is incompatible with EU Regulation 44/2001 (the “Brussels I…
The UAE law on arbitration is contained in a dozen provisions in the UAE Civil Procedures Law. Whilst the law is not long, the provisions can often be overlooked by tribunal’s and counsel. Unfortunately the local courts usually take a strict view as to compliance, as illustrated in a recent decision by the Dubai Court…
1. I have written elsewhere about the extension of the arbitration clause to non-signatories in situations that have been identified as the doctrines of the “group of companies” and the assumption of debts.1)”The extension of arbitration agreements: a ‘glimpse’ of connectivity?” 32(1) ASA Bull. 18 (2014). In that particular case, the circumstances of the facts…
