In September 2018, Tanzania took the international arbitration community by surprise when it issued its notice of its intent to terminate the Agreement on Encouragement and Reciprocal Protection of Investments between Tanzania and the Netherlands which was set to expire on 1 April 2019 (Netherlands BIT). Article 14 (2) of the Netherlands BIT provides that…

On 22 March 2019, the Netherlands published its new model BIT (“2019 Dutch Model BIT”). The new model text may well set the scene for a new generation of investment treaties, paving the way with progressive rules on sustainable development and gender empowerment. The 2019 Dutch Model BIT is a refined version of the initial…

The regular readers of the Kluwer Arbitration Blog will recall my blog at the beginning of this year in which I predicted that 2019 would be the ‘Year of the big Harvest’ for the European Commission regarding its efforts to permanently change the landscape of international investment law and arbitration. This posts will review the…

Introduction The Dubai International Arbitration Centre (“DIAC”) is a regional arbitration centre created by statue in 1994 as part of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (the “Chamber”). On 23 April 2019, the Ruler of Dubai issued Decree No. 17 of 2019 approving a new statute for DIAC (the “New DIAC Statute”). The New…

During its most active years, between 1982 and 1994, the nine members of the Iran-US Claims Tribunal (at all times 3 from Iran, 3 from the US, and three “neutral” arbitrators) ruled on hundreds of disputes, sometimes involving particularly fraught points of international law, all this while applying and interpreting the UNCITRAL Rules of arbitration…

On April 12, 2019, the Republic of Djibouti (“Djibouti”) signed the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (“ICSID Convention” or “Convention”). To date, the Convention has been signed by 163 countries and ratified by 154 countries. Why is Djibouti signing the ICSID Convention at a time when…

Introduction Unlike other pillars of arbitration like recognition-enforcement of foreign awards and independence-impartiality of arbitrators, the Kompetenz-Kompetenz rule is far from a universal standard. Each jurisdiction has a particular rule, with clear distinctions between the approaches adopted, for example, by the US, the UK, France, Switzerland and China.1)For a comprehensive comparison of these legal systems,…

What drew you to the world of International Arbitration? Before moving to the United States, I practiced law in Croatia where I gained litigation experience, among other. I love the dispute resolution aspect of legal work, and especially that of advocating for clients before a court or tribunal. During my Bluebook traineeship at the Legal…

As the recent launch of the Prague Rules and the discussions at the Paris Arbitration Week 2019 and London International Disputes Week 2019 have shown, discussions around time and cost efficiency in arbitration remain a key concern of users and the arbitration community. This article accordingly reports on the launch event held by Delos Dispute…

Introduction On 8 May 2019, the Arbitration Amendment Act 2019 (the Amendment Act) came into force.  It amends the Arbitration Act 1996 and is a much watered-down version of the original proposal.  The Amendment Act makes three changes: (i) the insertion of a new waiver sub-clause in Article 16 of Schedule 1 of the Arbitration Act (which…

The CERSA (CNRS, University Paris II Panthéon-Assas) organized its fourth event in a series of seminars on selected topics in international investment law and ISDS. On 28 March 2019, a distinguished panel of practitioners and academics gathered in Paris to exchange views on ‘Environmental Considerations in Investment Arbitration’. The discussion was moderated by Catharine Titi…

Introduction: the Arbitration Amendment Act 2019 Arbitration law reform is often portrayed in terms of relentless progress towards enlightenment: towards greater party autonomy, increased efficiency, reduced judicial interference, and more certain enforcement. In important areas of arbitral law and practice, that is an accurate narrative: the acceptance of the principles of Kompetenz-Kompetenz and separability, for…

This post aims at highlighting an inconsistency in the law of the European Union (“EU”) in regards to the comparison of the treatment of Bilateral Investment Treaties (“BITs”) and Double Taxation Treaties (“DTTs”) concluded between EU Member States. The inconsistency lies in the diametrically different approaches adopted by EU law and its institutions (“EU Institutions”)…

The Finnish Minister of Justice announced at the end of January this year that the revision process of the 1992 Finnish Arbitration Act would be launched during the current government term. Finnish business and arbitration communities greatly welcomed the statement, as it mirrors their long-time efforts towards this goal. The Ministry of Justice has begun…

The second edition of the Jeantet “Arbitrating in CEE and CIS” roundtable was held during the Paris Arbitration Week on Thursday 4 April 2019 at the Jeantet offices. The topic of this year’s edition was “Transparency, Accountability and Choice of Arbitrators”. An increasing demand of international arbitration users for more transparency, predictability of decisions and…

The last session of the London International Disputes Week discussed the resolution of competition disputes. Sir Peter Roth, The Honorable Mr Justice, President of the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, gave the keynote speech. Sir Roth explained that, while most of these disputes are a follow up to EU Commission decisions and one must also take…

Shipping disputes might range from minor issues to complex jurisdictional claims with several parties involved in the contracts. Due to the popularity and observed benefits of arbitration, such as the privacy of the arbitral process and perceived certainty in the binding nature of arbitral awards, arbitral agreements have grown in use with the increase in…

The session on International Investment Disputes of the LIDW 2019 was divided in three panels discussing the hot topics in investment law and the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system: investment protection post-Achmea, interim measures, security for costs, emergency arbitration procedures, and transparency in investment arbitration, as well as the wider issue of ISDS reform. The…

The nature and up-coming trends in the financial services dispute sector were one of the topics dealt with during the first day of the London International Dispute Week (LIDW). The audience had the opportunity to formulate an understanding of how financial disputes are treated by courts and tribunals. The Right Honourable Lord Justice Hamblen gave…

The growing repository of international commercial arbitration case data maintained by Dispute Resolution Data (DRD) is designed to enable practitioners to use analytical tools, ranging from simple to complex, for gleaning valuable insights into the effectiveness of arbitration as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism. For example, we showed in our first blog post that among…

The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 53 independent countries, comprising large and small, developed and developing, landlocked and island economies. It is home to about 2.4 billion people with not only shared but also very distinct history, culture, values, languages and legal traditions. The shared Commonwealth heritage leads to close diplomatic and commercial relationships,…

In international commercial arbitration, issues relating to the unconstitutionality of national law (or national legislation) are very rarely raised before the arbitral tribunal. Within a purely academic setting, Jan Paulsson once commented that “[t]here [was] nothing at all unorthodox about the proposition that international tribunals empowered to apply national law [are also entitled to] make…

The amparo is a constitutional action available in several Latin American countries by means of which a person can request the protection of her fundamental rights when an authority has violated or threatened to violate them.  Because of the amparo’s broad scope, it can be used as a guerrilla tactic in many of those jurisdictions,…

On the 60th year of the signing of the New York Convention, the Philippines’ Supreme Court, for the first time, declared its adoption of a narrow definition of “public policy” under the said convention. In Mabuhay Holdings Corporation v Sembcorp Logistics Limited, G.R. No. 212734, 5 December 2018, it held that “[m]ere errors in the interpretation of…