A two-day conference on “Equal Access to Information & Justice, Online Dispute Resolution”, organised by the ICC took place in Paris on 12-13 June. Over 160 lawyers, magistrates, academics, researchers, dispute resolution organisations and online dispute resolution providers, from over 30 countries and representing each continent attended. The conference was jointly chaired by Ethan Katsh…

Professor Roger Alford, the Editor of Kluwer Arbitration Blog, was appointed to leadership role at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he will promote the enforcement of antitrust laws around the world. Professor Alford will be the deputy assistant attorney general for international affairs in the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, in which capacity he will manage…

Since 30 years, international arbitration of business disputes continues to increase. It has become the primary form, some say “the natural way”, of settling commercial disputes between companies or individuals from different countries. As international arbitration becomes more popular and wide-spread it has also become more sophisticated, developing its own procedures and documents. The steady…

Introduction It has been almost seven years since the introduction of the concept of emergency arbitrator procedure by major arbitral institutions, and the procedure has become an invaluable option for arbitration users who seek protection and preservation of their rights before the constitution of a full tribunal. However, most arbitral institution rules that include rules…

As the Co-Chairs of the ICCA-Queen Mary Task Force on Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration (Task Force), we are pleased to announce that the draft report of the ICCA-Queen Mary Task Force on Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration is now available for public comment until 31 October 2017. The draft report is available here. Overview…

(a.k.a why is it always Bill?) To those unfamiliar with this popular Hasbro™ family game, each team has a board with 24 faces on it – the faces vary in colour, shape, gender, facial hair and attire. In the conventional game each side ‘picks their person’ and the other player has to whittle down the…

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent those of Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft. Third-Party Funding (TPF) has certainly captured the attention of the arbitration community in the last few years. This has led to an interesting debate on its implications and potential need for regulation that has, however, failed…

The primary purpose of an arbitration clause is to represent the parties’ common agreement to resolve disputes arising out of their contractual relationship by arbitration. One-way arbitration clauses, however, serve this primary purpose while giving only one party the right to commence arbitration proceedings. Consequently, the other party only has the option of approaching a…

As announced at its Annual Meeting and 29th Workshop in Dallas, the Institute of Transnational Arbitration (ITA) is relaunching our young (under 40) practitioners’ group, now called Young ITA. This new initiative will focus on expanding the global footprint and profile of the group and ITA, and on creating new leadership opportunities for young arbitration…

According to the Doing Business Reports, from 2014 and 2016 Myanmar ameliorated the possibility to enter into business in the country by increasing its rank from 177 to 171. However, this evolution seems to be frozen as shown by the 2017 Report in terms of amelioration. Nonetheless, Myanmar’s government is ready to take a next…

The US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit’s Thai-Lao Lignite (Thailand) v. Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic The friction between a seat and an enforcement forum, i.e. between annulment and enforcement continues. An arbitral award in the Thai-Lao Lignite (Thailand) v. Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic case (“Thai Lao Lignite…

The potential clash between protection of investors under investment treaties and protection of the environment has emerged in a number of recent arbitrations. More than 60 investment disputes filed since 2012 have had some environmental component. Amongst them, there have been several cases in which States have sought to enforce environmental law against investors in…

Introduction The investment solar energy saga triggered by the regulatory reforms in the renewable energy undertaken by Spain and Italy is likely to be the new Black Swan in the investment arbitration world, reaching the importance and controversy of the Argentinian crisis of 2001. In addition, the question whether the ISDS system has learnt the…

The law of privilege as relating to in-house counsel (especially in civil law jurisdictions) is indeed a controversial and much debated issue. Well-spoken advocates from the “internal” as well as “external” bar have written and spoken on this this issue forcefully. In reading DLA Piper’s Legal Professional Privilege Global Guide (2017), it is absolutely mind…

On 1 March 2017 the Austrian Supreme Court (Oberster Gerichtshof) ruled on whether potential claims under the Austrian Commercial Agents Act (Handelsvertretergesetz) can be brought before an Austrian court even if the underlying agency agreement contains an arbitration clause and is governed by the laws of New York (OGH 1.3.2017, 5 Ob 72/16y). The judgment…

After a few declarations of intention to terminate BITs (see my previous post), Poland put words into actions. On 18 July 2017, the Polish Government submitted to the Sejm (the lower house of Polish Parliament) a draft law (“Draft Law”, available in Polish here) which empowers the Polish President to unilaterally terminate the Agreement on…

Introduction There are over 250 million people who speak Portuguese, being commonly identified as the sixth most spoken language in the world. It is an official dialect in Angola, Brazil, Cabo-Verde, Equatorial-Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal, São-Tomé and Principe and Timor-Leste. Business transactions are entered into daily within a vast territorial space that reaches from…

The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (President) signed the constitutional law “On the Astana International Financial Centre” (Law) on 7 December 2015, which provides a legal framework for the establishment and operation of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC). The launch of the AIFC is part of the President’s “100 Concrete Steps” Plan of…

Since 1996, commercial arbitration in Lithuania has been regulated by the Law on Commercial Arbitration which was based on the provisions of the 1985 UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration. In 2012, the Lithuanian Parliament revised the Law in accordance with the 2006 amendments to the UNCITRAL Model law. Furthermore, in order to emphasize…

The process of document production in international arbitration is important. Documentary evidence is often the primary category of evidence; and legal costs associated with it tend to constitute a significant proportion of the overall costs of arbitral proceedings. Document production may also be one of the very reasons why arbitration has been preferred over litigation….

The last 40 years or so has experienced increased growth in the number of transactions concluded internationally, departing from classical one-shot contracts such as the simple sale of goods contract. These complex contracts involve in many instances a mix of private and public issues as is seen in regulatory sectors (telecommunications, oil and gas). The…

India has long been regarded as an unappealing centre for arbitration – be it as the seat of arbitration or as the place of final enforcement of the arbitral award. Indian judiciary is often quoted to be over interfering in matters of arbitration and enforcement. If fact could replace fiction, in the last decade, Shylock…

In a judgment of 24 May 2017 (Biogaran v International Drug Development, case n° 15-25.457), the commercial chamber of the French Cour de Cassation (Supreme Court) considered the question of whether a counterclaimant is bound by the requirements of a “multi-tier” dispute resolution clause. The clause in question required the parties to mediate as a…

A recent decision of the Seoul Central District Court provided guidance as to when a party should be considered to have waived its right to object to instances of non-compliance in arbitration proceedings. This post provides a summary of the Court’s judgment case and considers the possible ramifications of the Court’s reasoning for parties involved…