The Vienna International Arbitral Centre (“VIAC”) announces its most recent update to the VIAC Rules of Arbitration and Mediation (the VIAC Rules of Arbitration and Mediation 2021) taking effect on 1 July 2021. The revision of the VIAC Rules of Arbitration and Mediation was triggered by the drafting of the new standalone set of VIAC…
The Russian 2016 Arbitration Reform (the “Reform”) was a game-changer for both arbitration practitioners and the arbitral institutions. One of the major implications of the Reform was that so-called “corporate” disputes (which definition covers a large number of post-M&A disputes, including those arising out of share purchase agreements and shareholders’ agreements) could now only be…
Recent draft legislation submitted to the Ukrainian Parliament would introduce new regulations imposing stricter requirements for setting up domestic arbitral institutions (‘treteyskyi sud’) and, at the same time, introduce a framework for establishing new international arbitral institutions in Ukraine. This appears to be the latest legislative initiative in the line of recent reforms aimed at…
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 results of the 2021 QMUL-White & Case International Arbitration Survey were launched on 6 May 2021. The survey explores the theme of “Adapting Arbitration to a Changing World”: how international arbitration has adapted to changing demands and circumstances including the COVID-19 pandemic, and opportunities for the international arbitration community to adapt more and better….
The Arbitration Committee of the New York City Bar Association has recently published a report titled: “The Functus Officio Problem in Modern Arbitration and a Proposed Solution” (the “Report”). In United States arbitration, the functus officio doctrine instructs that once an arbitrator finishes performance of her office, i.e., renders an award, her authority as an…
In a field as competitive as arbitration, international reputation is earned, not created overnight. In 2021, various judgments of the Spanish Constitutional Court (see here, here and here) have done away with some case law by inferior Madrid courts which favoured an expansive review of awards and compromised the finality of arbitration (see here and here). Spain is…
Following a highly-publicized diplomatic battle among the EU Member States (MS), the EU revealed in mid-February its proposal to amend the ECT’s definition of the “Economic Activity in the Energy Sector” (EAES). The announcement allayed fears of the intra-EU discussions on the matter falling apart. Insofar as it sets forth a vision for amendments that…
In recent years the arbitration community has embraced digitalisation. Already before the pandemic we were exploring the use of legal tech and even thinking of how artificial intelligence would profoundly change our business and our profession. Most likely the form and content of the services we provide will be different in the future due to…
When starting as the secretary general of the Finland Arbitration Institute (FAI) almost two years ago I wanted to properly understand what it is that we do and how we can reach our full potential in it. I had been a part of the arbitration community, arbitrating, teaching and doing research for long enough to…
Nearly a decade ago, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (“PCA”) published its Optional Rules for Arbitration of Disputes Relating to Outer Space Activities (“PCA Outer Space Rules” or “Rules”). Unlike the five United Nations treaties on outer space, the Rules provide for a voluntary and binding dispute resolution process accessible to all space actors. Notably,…
Introduction In the past few years, the world has been following the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) reform debate under the aegis of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). This discussion started in 2017, when the UNCITRAL Working Group III began its work on ISDS reform. Among the proposals submitted by member States…
What makes disputes in banking and finance different? After all, like most commercial disputes, their determination often requires the interpretation of contracts, deciding whether a party is liable in contract or tort, and quantifying damages. Furthermore, financial institutions are, in many respects, no different from other commercial parties to disputes. Yet, in practice banking and…
Corruption, annulment of arbitral awards and court intervention mark the main developments for 2020 in Latin America. Our contributors this year reported on the most important judicial decisions and legislative measures impacting the legal framework of various jurisdictions in the region. A new ‘hot topic’ arising from the COVID-19 pandemic is the interplay between arbitration…
Welcome to the Kluwer Arbitration Blog, Ms. Sámano! We are grateful for this opportunity to learn more about the Arbitration Center of Mexico – CAM; the type of disputes it handles and the way it is addressing recent developments, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the adoption of new policies from the Andrés Manuel López…
Third-party funding (TPF) has come a long way from its humble beginnings at the fringes of various jurisdictions, where it was historically a tort and even a crime. Today, the doctrines of champerty and maintenance have been decriminalized and in most jurisdictions no longer fall foul of public policy considerations. TPF is now perceived as…
The 2021 ICC Arbitration Rules introduce new procedures, update key provisions, and formalize the existing practices of the ICC Secretariat and the Court in order to allow for greater flexibility, efficiency and transparency in the administration of ICC arbitration cases. We will focus in this post on the changes made under the new Rules to…
In 2019, we were wondering whether winter had come to Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), bringing with it a decline in the negotiation and conclusion of bilateral investment treaties. Looking back on 2020, we are left asking ourselves a similar question. This post will examine the year’s major institutional developments and their effects on ISDS both…
Aside from providing great entertainment, films such as Wall Street and The Big Short have taught us that there are numerous complex financial products which are regularly created within the banking and finance industry that could give rise to disputes. Traditionally, litigation has been the mode of choice for resolving banking and finance disputes. However,…
We initiate our traditional Year in review series of 2020 with a retrospective view of the reported developments in the Sub-Saharan Africa. In this post, we aim at giving you a quick look back to some of our most impactful publications in 2020 from this geographical area, with a focus on the commercial arbitration developments…
On 5 May 2020, 23 Member States of the European Union (“EU”) signed an Agreement for the Termination of all Intra-EU Bilateral Investment Treaties (“Agreement”). Following ratification by the Kingdom of Denmark (6 May 2020) and Hungary (30 July 2020), the Agreement entered into force on 29 August 2020 (Article 16). The Agreement comes in…
On 6 October 2020, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) approved and released its 2021 Rules of Arbitration (2021 Rules), in draft. These Rules are subject to editorial changes and the final version is to be officially launched in December 2020. The 2021 Rules of Arbitration will then come…
Expedited arbitration is often associated with smaller value disputes. For example, the International Chamber of Commerce suggests expedited arbitration for disputes of $2 million or less, while the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre has a $3 million threshold for expedited arbitration. Expedited arbitration makes procedural tradeoffs that are deemed warranted because there isn’t that much…
Introducing a regulation of early determination in the context of expedited proceedings, highlights a series conflicting interests. Therefore, the UNCITRAL Working Group II on dispute resolution has not yet taken a final position on whether such a regulation should be inserted in the context of expedited arbitration, or whether it should rather be considered as…
