Nkiru Agbu is the winner of the 2020 Kluwer Arbitration Quiz. Nkiru spent New Year’s Day researching the Quiz in order to be the first to submit the correct answers. Now that’s passion for international arbitration! Nkiru won a very special prize for her correct answers for which she will be contacted. In addition to…
Alejandro, thank you for joining us on the Kluwer Arbitration Blog! We are delighted to have the opportunity to interview you at a time when the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) and its modernisation are on the spotlight. Alejandro is the current General Counsel and Head of the Conflict Resolution Centre at the ECT Secretariat, which…
In 2019, the Swiss Supreme Court (“Supreme Court”) seized two opportunities to confirm and develop its existing case law in relation to the personal scope of arbitration agreements and their possible extension to non-signatories. Extension to Non-Signatories under the New York Convention In a first decision, ATF 145 III 199, dated 17 April 2019,…
2019 has seen a series of important arbitration-related developments for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. This post highlights selected key arbitration developments in these States from the past 12 months. It focuses on several domestic arbitration law reform efforts and on important developments in respect of investor-State arbitration. Domestic Arbitration: Legal Developments and…
Should odd domestic arbitration practices be forgot, and never brought to mind! Planning to be more international in the coming decade? Just in time for your New Years resolutions, we have the 2020 Kluwer Arbitration New Years Quiz. This year, the blog’s editors have helped assemble questions about domestic arbitration practices from around the…
The year 2019 has seen some important legislative and case law developments in the European jurisdictions and Kluwer Arbitration Blog, as always, has been closely monitoring the developments on the ground. I. Summary of Important Legislative Developments a) Sweden: Aligning Arbitration Law with International Developments and Eliminating Duplicate Proceedings In March 2019, a…
It has now become a tradition that in December of each year, Kluwer Arbitration Blog offers you several posts with a retrospective of the year in specific regions and fields. We also take this opportunity to present ourselves and thank you for your immense support, as readers and contributors. Entering a New Year has also…
As discussed in our previous post (available here), Polish civil procedure, including arbitration law (contained in Part V of the Polish Code of Civil Procedure or ‘CCP’) has undergoing significant changes. This post focuses on those amendments that substantially modify the legal framework for arbitration of corporate disputes. Problems with the Arbitrability of Shareholder…
Polish civil procedure is in the midst of a very significant makeover. The bulk of amendments came into effect on 7 November 2019 (the Polish version of the amending act to the Polish Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) is available here). This blog post discusses the nature of those amendments and their significance for arbitration….
2019 has been a busy year for international arbitration in Sub-Saharan Africa. Indeed, the year has brought an interesting wave of precedents, new domestic statutes, modern international investment agreements, and arbitration events. This post highlights and summarises some of the African developments covered in the Blog in 2019, with many thanks to the authors who…
The swift and far-reaching development experienced by arbitration in Spain over the past few decades is unprecedented in the context of other arbitration-friendly jurisdictions. In little more than 40 years, a fully-fledged arbitration system was set up virtually from scratch. In 1977 Spain ratified the New York Convention without reservation, thus entering the international arbitration…
On 24 October 2019, the European Commission announced that the EU Member States have reached agreement on a plurilateral treaty for the termination of all ca. 190 intra-EU bilateral investment treaties (BITs). The agreement follows the political Declarations of the Member States issued in January this year in which they explained the consequences they are…
Under French law, the principle is that both a request to set aside an award and an appeal of a decision upholding enforcement (ordonnance d’exequatur) have no suspensive effect (Article 1526(1) of the Code of Civil Procedure, ‘CCP’), so that an international arbitral award is immediately enforceable. However, as an exception, stay or adjustment of…
Interesting developments in disputes involving Venezuela and its national oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) took place after Juan Guaidò, the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, took the interim Presidency of the State in January 2019. Since then, he has adopted a series of measures and intervened in a series of proceedings involving…
Located in the heart of Brussels, Europe’s capital and home to international organisations such as NATO, CEPANI, the Belgian Centre for Arbitration and Mediation, was founded on 25 September 1969. At that time, Belgium had just acceded to the Geneva Convention and was exploring ways to update its obsolete legal arbitration framework. Much has changed…
On September 25, 2019, a program on “Career Paths in Arbitration” took place in Boston, MA, at Harvard University. The program was sponsored and organized by ArbitralWomen, Young ArbitralWomen Practitioners (“YAWP”) and the Boston International Arbitration Council (“BIAC”). The event was supported by the United States Council for International Business (“USCIB”), the Harvard International Arbitration…
Introduction In domestic award enforcement proceedings, the U.S. federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (“Second Circuit”) in New York recently reversed a lower federal trial court’s decision to vacate that award on grounds that the arbitrator manifestly disregarded the law. See Weiss v. Sallie Mae, Inc., Dkt. No. 18-2362, Slip Op. (2d Cir….
Arbitrators’ civil liability is not a topic that everyone within the arbitration community enjoys discussing. Therefore, it is not surprising that the approach to the concept of liability differs within the arbitration community. In cases where someone may face civil liability, the possibility to insure such risk arises. This blog post, therefore, will deal with…
Essential Role of Effective Case Management in Arbitration Throughout the second half of the 20th century, arbitration has become a dominant and preferred method for resolving international disputes. Its advantages are widely known. This being said, international arbitration suffers nowadays from increasing costs and duration of the proceedings. It is less efficient than it promises….
The ITA-IEL-ICC Joint Conference on International Energy Arbitration was held in Singapore in September, examining the future of international energy disputes in the region. There was a focus on the client perspective, with insights from a variety of speakers. The range of participants and speakers was impressive, with practitioners, in-house counsel and institution representatives covering…
As Hong Kong Arbitration Week 2019 hits the midway point, we asked three next-generation arbitration practitioners: how do you see the future of arbitration in Hong Kong? These are their answers: Joyce Leung: As a construction lawyer, I am seeing an increase in arbitrations arising from the construction sector in light of the completion of…
Introduction With less than a month to go before the latest EU-UK divorce date, the UK Supreme Court resumed its hearing in Micula et al. v Romania 2018/0177, relating to the enforcement of the widely discussed ICSID award against Romania. With the UK grappling with its future relationship with the EU, it is interesting timing…
In the recent judgment of AIC Limited v The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria [2019] EWHC 2212, the English High Court adjourned the decision to enforce a Nigerian arbitral award in exercise of its discretion pursuant to section 103(5) of the Arbitration Act 1996 (which gives effect to Article VI of the New York Convention)…
One effective way to manage risk allocation and especially political risk in state contracts consists of delegating dispute resolution and contract interpretation to arbitrators. With the aim to entice more private investors to develop infrastructure, Brazil has taken one positive step to expressly allow arbitration in public contracts concluded in these sectors. On 20 September…
