Arbitration

Arbitration, BIT, Conference, Energy, Interim measures

(Squire Patton Boggs)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

The 3rd Annual Joint Conference on International Energy Arbitration, co-hosted by the Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA), the Institute for Energy Law (IEL), and the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), took place on January 14-15, 2016, in Houston, Texas. Under the guidance of conference co-chairs C. Mark Baker (Norton…

Ad hoc arbitration, Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration institution, Arbitration Proceedings, International arbitration, Latvia, Validity

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Latvian courts annually enforce approximately 1000 arbitral awards. Just a few years ago this number was even higher – reaching 7000 requests in 2004 (statistics of the Court Information System available here) – since also consumer disputes could have been submitted to arbitration, as non-negotiated arbitration clauses were not presumed to be unfair and thus…

Arbitration, Arbitration Act, Foreign seat, India

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The Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“Act”) makes it clear that an arbitration between an Indian and a foreign party can be governed by foreign law and can have a foreign seat. This is defined as ‘international commercial arbitration’ under the Act. However, whether two Indian parties can agree to a foreign seat for…

Arbitration, Corruption, International arbitration

(D|R Arbitration & Litigation)/ /Leave a comment
YSIAC

The legal consequences of a breach of a contract tainted by corruption are better understood through a hypothetical: Contractor A of country X enters into negotiations with B, the Minister of Economics and Development of country Y, with a view to concluding an agreement on a large infrastructure project (“the Contract”). B requests the payment…

Arbitration, Financial Agreements, Financial Industry, kompetenz-kompetenz, Portugal, Swap

(University of Lisbon, Faculty of Law)/ /Leave a comment

and Duarte G. Henriques, BCH Lawyers 1. Until very recently the swaps industry seemed to be reluctant to use alternative dispute resolution or at least was very indifferent as to the choice of the dispute resolution mechanism, with disputes almost always being left for the courts of either London or New York to decide, these…

Africa, Appointment of arbitrators, Arbitral seat, Arbitration, Uncategorized

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“A course in international arbitration that does not cover the Libya oil arbitration cases of the 1970s would probably be considered incomplete by most standards.” (Arbitration in Asia and Africa: Profiles of Selected Arbitral Institutions, Won Kidane, China-Africa Dispute Settlement: The Law, Economics and Culture of Arbitration, International Arbitration Law Library, Volume 23, p.367) This…

Arbitration, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Latin America, Mexico, Peru

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2015 has witnessed numerous interesting legal developments in the field of international arbitration in Latin America, although these have been wide-ranging in nature and have not always followed the same path. While some jurisdictions have taken legislative steps to introduce or consolidate pro-arbitration legislation in accordance with internationally accepted standards, others, perhaps influenced by negative…

Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Enforcement, Russia

(Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners)/ /1 Comment

In some legal systems, a shareholder of a company may act for the company in certain circumstances. When a shareholder is permitted to do so, questions may arise whether the shareholder may invoke (and is bound by) an arbitration clause in the contract. The arbitrability of derivative shareholders’ actions is largely unclear in comparative legal…

Ad hoc arbitration, Arbitrability, Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Corporate disputes, Enforcement, Russia

(Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners) and (Brevia)/ /Leave a comment

For the last several years, Russia has undergone arbitration reform initiated by the President in or around 2013. The reform is aimed at increasing the credibility of this dispute resolution mechanism in Russia and updating the framework regulating domestic and international arbitration by addressing many long known gaps. The latest development occurred on 29 December…

Arbitration, Confidentiality, Confidentiality and Transparency, Investment Arbitration, Mauritius

(School of Law, King’s College London)/ /Leave a comment

by Maria Laura Marceddu, School of Law, King’s College London Over the last years, as discussed on this blog (see here), there have been many interesting developments in the field of transparency in investor-State arbitration: the 2006 ICSID amendments, the 2013 UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration (“the 2013 UNCITRAL Rules”) (see here), and…

Ad hoc arbitration, Arbitral seat, Arbitral Tribunal, Arbitration, Arbitration Act, Australia, BIT, Transparency, Transparency in investment arbitrations, Uncategorized, UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency, UNCITRAL Transparency Rules

(Australian National University)/ /2 Comments

by Esmé Shirlow (Assistant Editor for Australia & New Zealand)   Gabriele Ruscalla has recently observed that “transparency has become a fundamental principle in international adjudication”. The transparency paradigms governing different types of international adjudication are, however, far from uniform. Discussions of transparency in international arbitration typically begin, for example, from a distinction between commercial and investment treaty disputes. As Cristoffer Nyegaard Mollestad explains…

Arbitration, Domestic Courts, International arbitration, Italy

(Lombardi Segni e Associati)/ /4 Comments

According to the last “Scoreboard” published by the European Commission in 2015 regarding the civil justice system in each Member State, the average length of first instance proceedings in Italy is 608 days. Only Cyprus and Malta take more time to reach a decision. As if this was not enough, the number of proceedings which…

Arbitration, IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest, Third party funding

(Coz & Blavi)/ /1 Comment

Third party funding (“TPF”) has attracted a great deal of attention from the legal community, as it offers significant advantages and poses serious risks for international arbitration. Besides guaranteeing access to justice for those who are financially incapable of bearing the costs of an arbitration proceeding, the funded party will most certainly benefit from limiting…

Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Russia, Sanctions

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by Anja Havedal Ipp, Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce A year into the sanctions regime, the arbitration community is trying to assess and predict its impact on Russia-related arbitration. Some commentators have drawn somewhat exaggerated conclusions. An October 22 post at the Kluwer Arbitration Blog, for example, talked about Russia’s “seismic shift” toward…

Arbitration, Investment Arbitration, Treaty, Treaty Interpretation

(London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Law)/ /5 Comments

by Velimir Živković, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Law Imagine that in the heyday of post-Cold War period State A concluded a number of bilateral investment treaties (”BITs”) with a number of countries. Due to a variety of factors, these lay dormant for decades as State A is not exposed to investor…

Ad hoc arbitration, Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Proceedings, Commercial Arbitration, Enforcement, Georgia, kompetenz-kompetenz, Set aside an arbitral award

(Hogan Lovells)/ /1 Comment

In 2009, Georgia adopted a new Law on Arbitration (“Law on Arbitration”) based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration with amendments as adopted in 2006 (“Model Law”). Shortly thereafter, Mr. Michael Wietzorek commented on the implementation of the new law on the Kluwer Arbitration Blog (here) and qualified this as a “significant…

Appeal, Applicable Law, Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Croatia, Small claims

(University of Aberdeen)/ /Leave a comment

In January 2015, a new arbitration institution, under somewhat ambiguous name of the Civil Arbitration Court (“Parnični arbitražni sud”) [“CAC”], was established. The program and rules provided by the CAC reveal its dedication to provide parties with an alternative forum for the resolution of disputes related to small claims, as in accordance with the principles…

Arbitration, Arbitration Awards, Consent awards, Enforcement, Settlement

(British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL))/ /Leave a comment

In September 2015 the UNCITRAL Working Group II (Arbitration and Conciliation) continued its work on formulating legal framework on the enforcement of settlement agreements, including a convention, model provisions or guidance texts. Currently, parties can request arbitration tribunals to record their settlement agreements as consent awards, i.e. an arbitral award on terms agreed upon by…

Arbitration, Bribery, Corruption, Croatia, Investment Arbitration

(Georgetown University Law Center)/ /3 Comments

In the landscape of international investment arbitration the allegations of corruption have become more and more common. Confronted with investor’s claims before an arbitral tribunal, host states employ all possible legal arguments available to avoid potential liability and the subsequent payment of compensation. Investor’s corrupt acts have emerged as a potentially viable state defense in…

Arbitration, Arbitration Act, CJEU, Intellectual Property Rights, Portugal

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It is fair to say that arbitration is already a widespread dispute mechanism in Portugal, broadly used not only for commercial disputes but also for disputes in other areas such as, for example, consumer, administrative and tax disputes. As for intellectual property, the possibility of submitting disputes to arbitration has been a reality in Portugal…

Arbitration, Lithuania, Public Policy

(Motieka & Audzevicius)/ /Leave a comment

Public policy remains one of the most popular grounds used by the parties to oppose the recognition and enforcement of an arbitral award. Its vague content also makes its application in court greatly challenging – academics still refer to public policy as the “unruly horse”. This creates a significant responsibility for the courts to find…

Arbitration, Investment Arbitration, ISDS

(NL-Investmentconsulting)/ /14 Comments

Recently, Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and Columbia University professor, warned about the dangers of TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership). “We know we’re going to need regulations to restrict the emissions of carbon,” Stiglitz said. “But under these provisions, corporations can sue the government, including the American government, by the way, so it’s all the governments…

Arbitration, BIT, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, ISDS

(WongPartnership LLP)/ /1 Comment
YSIAC

“ISDS” (short for “investor-state dispute settlement”) was a less-known acronym some years back. Now, it has been given an increasingly bad name, no doubt fuelled by Vattenfall’s claim against Germany following the shutting down of its nuclear plants after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, tobacco giant Philip Morris’ high profile claims arising from Australia’s plain-labelling laws,…

Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Commercial Arbitration, Enforcement, Poland, Set aside an arbitral award, Set aside an international arbitral award

(Kancelaria Adwokacka Adwokat Marcin Orecki)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction On 1 January 2016, the Act on Promoting Amicable Dispute Resolution Methods (dated 10 September 2015, published on 13 October 2015, Official Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland, item 1595), available in Polish here (“Amendment”), which was a subject of my previous post, will come into force. The Amendment is the first…