Arbitration clause, Best practices, Conflicts of interest, Evidence, IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest, IBA Rules of Evidence, ICC Arbitration, International arbitration

(KarimSyah Law Firm)/ /Leave a comment
ArbitralWomen

By Karen Mills, Mirèze Philippe and Ileana M. Smeureanu The views expressed are those of the authors alone and should not be regarded as representative of or binding upon the institution or the law firms they belong to. In the last twenty years there has been a proliferation of books, publications and articles about arbitration….

Arbitrability, Arbitral seat, Arbitral Tribunal, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Awards, Argentina, BIT, Investment Arbitration, Investor, SCOTUS, Transparency in investment arbitrations, Treaty, U.S. Supreme Court, UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, vacatur

(DLA Piper) and (Law Offices of Kiran N Gore PLLC; The George Washington University Law School)/ /Leave a comment

It has been over two years since the DC Circuit Court of Appeals (“Circuit Court”) vacated an award in a bilateral investment treaty arbitration (BG Group PLC v. Republic of Argentina (UNCITRAL)) concluding that the panel did not have authority to adjudicate the dispute because the claimant had not satisfied a pre-arbitration requirement, namely, litigating…

Arbitral seat, Arbitration Agreements, Enforcement of an arbitration clause, Middle East, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

A recent amendment to Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Law No. 1 of 2008, the DIFC Arbitration Law, brings the DIFC into line with the New York Convention (on the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, done in New York on 10 June 1958). DIFC Law No. 6 of 2013, the Arbitration Law Amendment…

Arbitrability, Competition Law, Domestic Courts, European Law, European Union, New York Convention, U.S. Supreme Court

(Colibra Insurance)/ /Leave a comment

A number of decisions of various national courts have dealt with the issue whether a competition law dispute may be referred to arbitration. Although the case law tends to favour a positive answer, it is still an issue that is being continuously brought up in litigation as an easy way out of arbitration clauses. This…

Arbitration, Guerrilla Tactics, IBA Guidelines on Party Representation

(Gleiss Lutz)/ /1 Comment

and Dr. Günther J. Horvath, Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Should we blame the new entrants (or the old dogs) or are we experiencing a general lowering of ethical standards? The Chief Justice of Singapore, Sundaresh Menon, already has a reputation for addressing sensitive issues of international arbitration and fueling debate. At the Chartered Institute of…

Arbitration, Arbitration Act, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Insurance

(Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

Under the direction of the Swiss Arbitration Association (“ASA”), a recent questionnaire asked 82 of the world’s most prestigious arbitral institutions, among other questions, whether they had insurance for professional liability claims. There are very few empirical studies in this area, but the survey indicated that only few institutions made an effort to answer; and…

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(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

A recent ruling of the Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation (see Appeal No. 519 of 2013, ruling of the Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation of 2nd October 2013) has done well to surprise the local arbitration community: It exudes a certain measure of inventiveness of the UAE Courts in matters of arbitration and demonstrates a…

Consent, Corruption, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Israel

(University of Alberta Faculty of Law)/

On 4 October 2013, an ICSID tribunal rendered its decision in the investment treaty dispute between the Israeli company Metal-Tech Ltd. and Uzbekistan. In the award, the tribunal found that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the parties’ claims and counterclaims brought under the Israel-Uzbekistan BIT and Uzbek law due to corruption related to Metal-Tech’s investment…

Arbitration Act, Arbitration Proceedings, Due process, English Law, Set aside an arbitral award

(Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP)/ /Leave a comment

and Nikki O’Sullivan, Senior Associate at Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP In a recent decision of the English Commercial Court, Flaux J restated the general principle that the focus of an enquiry under Section 68 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (“the Act”) is to ascertain whether due process has been observed in the making of an…

Corruption, International arbitration

(Investment Arbitration Reporter)/ /1 Comment

By Luke Eric Peterson There’s perennial discussion in the arbitration world as to the definition and legal implications of corruption in the context of international arbitration – including for example in a recent investment case involving Uzbekistan – but it’s less common to see discussions of corruption in the context of relations between arbitration lawyers…

Arbitration, Arbitration clause, Domestic Courts, Non-signatory, Third Party

(University of Alberta Faculty of Law)/ /Leave a comment

In the recent decision of the Tel-Aviv District Court in S. Elia Holdings Ltd. and Arie Shasha v. Ron Itzhaky, the plaintiffs were effectively estopped from bringing claims against a non-signatory under a contract containing an arbitration clause. The plaintiffs in the case are a private Israeli company engaged in real-estate entrepreneurship (“Elia Holdings”) and…

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

London-based think-tank Chatham House is predicting an increase in the number of arbitrations between governments and companies in the extractive industries. Commercial stakes being particularly high in this sector, companies generally seek to resolve disputes with a host state through negotiation, viewing arbitration as the method of last resort. Yet Chatham House believes that there…

Costs, Domestic Courts, Set aside an arbitral award

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

By Justin D’Agostino and Yi-Shun Teoh In the latest instalment of Pacific China Holdings Ltd (in Liquidation) v Grand Pacific Holdings Ltd, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal has confirmed that parties who unsuccessfully challenge arbitral awards will generally be ordered to pay costs on the indemnity basis. This is a relatively rare and…

Arbitration, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Domestic Courts, Enforcement, Enforcement of an arbitration clause

(Asters)/ /Leave a comment

and Anna Tkachova, Asters Court practice shows that sometimes while considering applications on recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitration awards, Ukrainian courts apply Ukrainian legislation in an arbitrary manner. In this post we will analyze the legal grounds used by Ukrainian courts in consideration of an application seeking recognition and enforcement of an award issued…

Arbitration Agreements, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, kompetenz-kompetenz, Latin America

(Clyde & Co. LLP)/ /1 Comment
Clyde & Co.

The Brazilian Superior Court of Justice (“STJ”) has issued, on 19 June 2013, a landmark decision addressing the principle of Kompetenz-Kompetenz (Resp. no. 1,278,852-MG Samarco Mineração S/A v Jerson Valadares da Cruz). The decision deals with the allocation of competence between arbitral tribunals and national courts to decide on the validity of an arbitration agreement….

BIT, Europe, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection

(Perréard de Boccard)/ /Leave a comment

Last year at about the same period, I reported on two major events that had been taking place in the world of Intra- and Extra-EU BITs, the Regulation establishing transitional arrangements for bilateral investments agreements between Member States and Third Countries, on the one hand, and the Electrabel decision, on the other. See blog of…

Arbitration, China

(Advocate, Arbitrator and Mediator)/ /2 Comments
Clyde & Co.

and Matthew Lam, Partner, Clyde & Co As announced recently on this blog Chinese Court Decision Summaries on Arbitration, edited by WunschARB, were recently published by Kluwer Arbitration. The case summaries are a welcome addition to the Kluwer Arbitration database, particularly given the paucity of caselaw analysis currently available in this area, and the editors’…

Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Belgium, Jurisdiction, Law governing the arbitration agreement

(Lexlitis, President CEPANI)/ /1 Comment

A judgment of the European Court of 17 October 2013 (C-184/12) honors gold plated provisions when considered mandatory. Member state courts are allowed to consider their national gold-plating (the practice of implementing rules tougher than the minimum required by the EU) as being of overriding mandatory character. Arbitration clause In 2005, Unamar, a Belgian commercial…

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(Herbert Smith Freehills LLP)/ /3 Comments
Herbert Smith Freehills

In a recent decision in the long-running Astro v. Lippo dispute,1)PT First Media TBK (formerly known as PT Broadband Multimedia TBK) v. Astro Nusantara International BV and others and another appeal (2013) SGCA 57. the Singapore Court of Appeal (the “Court“) grappled with the question of whether an unsuccessful party to an international arbitration award…

Arbitration, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor

(Ilyashev & Partners)/ /Leave a comment

The “contribution of assets” requirement of the Salini test was often overlooked by commentators and tribunals, probably due to its “I-know-it-when-I-see-it” nature. The recent award in KT Asia Investment Group B.V. v Republic of Kazakhstan, however, demonstrates that a failure to meet the contribution requirement may put to rest a claim of an offshore company…

Arbitration, Arbitration Institutions and Rules

(Schönherr)/ /Leave a comment

and Michael Nueber, Schönherr Introduction A new version of the so-called “Vienna Rules” came into force on 1 July 2013. Due to practitioners’ broad acceptance of the Vienna Rules 2006, changes were made only with regard to specific matters. The major focus of the amendments lies on expediting the arbitration proceedings and addressing cost-related issues….

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(Philip W. Engle, Attorney at Law - Solicitor - Arbitrator)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

The objective of this post is to help in-house and outside counsel communicate better with each other when addressing the topic of international commercial arbitration. While both may be (highly) conversant on the topic, the perspectives of each are potentially very divergent and true communication between them may be incomplete and ineffective. My desire here…

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(Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP)/ /Leave a comment

This article argues for the inclusion of synopses in arbitral awards, particularly ICSID awards which tend to be widely publicized and often exceed 100 pages in length, and in some cases, 300 pages. As international investment disputes continue to “mushroom” (UNCTAD, 2012), it is important for the arbitration community to think of ways to maximize…

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(Loyola University Chicago School of Law)/ /1 Comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

The new Recast Brussels I Regulation, which governs the jurisdiction of courts and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in the Member States of the European Union, has taken the strong position that arbitration will continue to be excluded from its coverage. The Recast Regulation will begin to apply to Member States in January 2015,…