Arbitration

Arbitral seat, Arbitration, International arbitration, Middle East, New York Convention, Seat of the arbitration

(Mechantaf Law)/ /Leave a comment

On 14 October 2012, Justice David Williams of the DIFC Court of First Instance (Dubai International Financial Centre) applied a course correction by issuing a decision confirming the jurisdiction of the DIFC Courts to grant a stay in the presence of a valid arbitration agreement providing for a seat of arbitration outside the DIFC. Justice…

Arbitration, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, International arbitration, Latin America

(Linklaters)/ /1 Comment

A few months ago I wrote a post on this Blog about what I saw as “work left to do” in the Spanish arbitration system. I started with the need to build a regional court of arbitration on a par with those well-known centres in other jurisdictions, with the fundamental aim of taking advantage of…

Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Costs, Costs in arbitral proceedings, Enforcement

(Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /1 Comment
WilmerHale

In its important 2011 decision AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, the United States Supreme Court sharply limited the grounds on which a court may invalidate an arbitration agreement. A recent ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, In re Checking Account Overdraft Litigation MDL No. 2036, illustrates how lower courts are…

Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Domestic Courts, Jurisdiction, Switzerland

(Editor in Chief, ASA Bulletin; LALIVE)/ /1 Comment

In a recently published decision dated 6 August 2012 (4A_119/2012), the Swiss Federal Supreme Court confirmed its own jurisprudence according to which state courts facing a jurisdictional defense based on an alleged arbitration agreement must not assess in full the validity of the arbitration agreement. In such cases, the state court must limit itself to a summary examination of whether or not a valid arbitration agreement exists.

Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Brazil, Domestic law, English Law, International arbitration, Law governing the arbitration agreement, Seat of the arbitration, UNCITRAL Model Law

(McGill University Faculty of Law)/ /2 Comments
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

The English Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Sulamerica CIA Nacional De Seguros SA v Enesa Engenharia SA [2012] EWCA Civ 638, which is discussed in a recent post by Guy Pendell, underscores an important weakness in the international arbitration system’s legal framework. While everyone accepts that the arbitration agreement is the foundation of an…

Anti-arbitration, Appeal, Arbitration, Bias, Domestic Courts, Sport arbitration

(Private International Arbitration Law Clerk at The Honorable Charles N. Brower)/ /1 Comment

During a bitter battle with anti-doping authorities, international cycling champion Lance Armstrong publicly campaigned against the anti-doping arbitration process. Armstrong’s offensive provides insights into widespread misconceptions about arbitration. On 20 August 2012, a U.S. Federal District Court dismissed Armstrong’s petition to enjoin the U.S. Anti Doping Agency (USADA) from further pursuing allegations that he was part…

Arbitration, Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Proceedings, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, Russia

(Clifford Chance LLP)/ /1 Comment

and Julia Popelysheva, Clifford Chance LLP Introduction On 19 June 2012 the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitrazh Court of the Russian Federation (“SAC RF“) issued a decree (“Decree“) in case No. VAS-1831/12 in which it examined the validity of an optional jurisdictional clause. The full text of the Decree setting out the rationale for the…

Arbitration, Domestic Courts, Enforcement, Middle East, New York Convention, Public Policy, Review on the merits

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

As explored in some detail in Part I of this blog post, recent UAE supervisory court case law has heralded a new era of enforcement of international awards in strict compliance with the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Awards (the “New York Convention”). To recap, the Maxtel line of…

Arbitration, Arbitration clause, Arbitration Proceedings, Canada, Consumer contracts, Domestic Courts, Enforcement of an arbitration clause, Pro arbitration

(www.marcgold.ca)/ /1 Comment

In recent years, Canada has an enjoyed a reputation as an arbitration-friendly country. This is due to a number of factors, including the incorporation or adaptation of the Model Law into the arbitration legislation at the provincial and federal level, a sophisticated arbitration community well versed in both the common and civil law traditions, and,…

Arbitration, Enforcement, English Law

(Herbert Smith Freehills LLP)/ /2 Comments
Herbert Smith Freehills

On 17 July 2012, the Privy Council (UKPC 27) passed a landmark judgment of relevance for creditors of States seeking to enforce against the assets of State-owned corporations. The Privy Council held that only in ‘quite extreme circumstances’ would a State-owned corporation (a separate juridical entity formed by the State for commercial or industrial purposes)…

Arbitration, Arbitration Institutions and Rules

(Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /1 Comment
WilmerHale

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (“PCA”) has played key role in the resolution of international disputes for well over a hundred years now. Over the past decade, however, the PCA’s importance and activities have significantly increased. Thirty-five investor-state arbitrations under bilateral or multilateral investment treaties or investment laws are currently pending at the PCA, in…

Appointment of arbitrators, Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Arbitrators, arbitrators’ conduct, Availability of arbitrators

(University of Portsmouth)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

The situation of a truncated arbitral tribunal may be caused by various factors. It may arise when a three-member tribunal during the course of the arbitral proceedings and before the rendering of the award does not remain the same at some point, meaning that one of the members of the tribunal dies, resigns or fails…

Appeal, Arbitration, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, International arbitration, Latin America, Section 1782 Discovery, South America

(Astigarraga Davis)/ /Leave a comment

On June 25th, 2012 the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which covers all federal appeals emanating from the states of Florida, Georgia and Alabama, decided that a private commercial arbitration tribunal in Ecuador used by the parties to resolve a commercial dispute is a ‘tribunal’ for purposes of the collection of…

Arbitration

(Independent Arbitrator)/ /Leave a comment

The Executive Committee and Academic Council of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA) are proud to announce that the second annual ITA Winter Forum will take place in Miami on January 24-25, 2013. Building on its successful launch in 2012, the Winter Forum will provide a unique opportunity for the exploration of scholarly papers and…

Arbitration, Commercial Arbitration, Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), National Arbitration Laws

(SMU Dedman School of Law)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

I was asked the other day whether I would recommend that the United States not only ratify the U.N. Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea—known as the “Rotterdam Rules”—but also adopt optional chapters 14 and 15 on the jurisdiction of courts and arbitration.1)As of June 2012 twenty-four…

Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Commercial Arbitration, International arbitration

(Editor in Chief, ASA Bulletin; LALIVE)/ /1 Comment

On 1 June 2012, the new revised version of the Swiss Rules of International Arbitration (“Swiss Rules”) will come into force.  According to Article 1.3, the new Rules will apply to all Swiss Rules proceedings in which the Request for Arbitration is submitted after 1 June 2012, unless the Parties agree otherwise. The Swiss Rules…

Arbitration, Investment Arbitration, Latin America

(Von Wobeser y Sierra, S.C.)/ /4 Comments

For almost 20 years, Mexico has been at the forefront of Latin-American arbitration practice. It has been widely recognized both in terms of the quality and sophistication of its practitioners, its modern legal framework (since 1993 based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration) and for its arbitration friendly judiciary. According to statistics…

Arbitration, Disclosure, Third party funding

(Conway & Partners)/ /Leave a comment

A central concern the in the third party funding arena is: Whether or not parties who are funded by a third party funder should be obligated to disclose this funding relationship. Looking at a recent conference in which many key funders participated on sharing their perspectives, it appears that many funders preferred to keep their…

Actual expenditure, Arbitration, Damages, Damages experts, Fair market value, Historic costs

(FTI Forensic and Litigation Consulting)/ /1 Comment

This is the third and final article in a three-part series summarising the main valuation methodologies used for the purposes of determining economic loss. In parts one and two, I provided an overview of the market-approach and income-based methodologies. I now conclude by reviewing the asset-based approach. To what extent, if any, is the sum…

Arbitration, Arbitration Act, Legislation

(Linklaters)/ /Leave a comment

The Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice has launched a consultation on the revision of the Dutch 1986 arbitration law. See here. For an informal English translation of a comparison with the current Dutch arbitration law, see here. The consultation will be open until 1 June 2012. It is anticipated that the legislative proposal will…

Arbitration, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, BIT, Class arbitration, International arbitration, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection

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

International arbitration has long played an important role in resolving disputes that arise out of political and economic crises.   “Arbitration in Times of Crisis” is the theme of the 9th Annual ITA-ASIL Conference on 28 March 2012 in Washington, D.C. (see program).   The conference will focus on lessons from the past use of arbitral mechanisms…

Appointment of arbitrators, Arbitration

(Stockholm Arbitration & Litigation Center (SALC))/ /3 Comments

Recent events in Romania have added a new twist to the debate on party-appointed arbitrators after an arbitration institute centralized the power to appoint arbitrators in one person and decided to remunerate the individual. By now, arbitration practitioners should be well aware of the arguments for and against party-appointed arbitrators. There is little to add…