The term “EU arbitration law” may take some getting used to. After all, there is no EU arbitration act that would be comparable to, for instance, the English Arbitration Act 1996 or Chapter 12 of the Swiss Private International Law Act. Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (“Rome I Regulation“),…
In a judgment dated 22 June 2021, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled that liability claims against arbitrators fall within the “arbitration exception” of Article 1(2)(d) of the Brussels I recast regulation, leading to the application of French private international law rules to determine the competent courts. The Paris Court of Appeal further considered that…
While the United Kingdom (“UK”) was a member of the European Union (“EU”), the power of the English courts to grant anti-suit injunctions was considerably constrained by EU law. Now that the UK has left the EU, it is worth asking the question: are anti-suit injunctions back on the menu? This blog post provides a…
The Brexit clock is ticking and, under the current circumstances, the no deal scenario is being increasingly regarded at least as a concrete option – although the situation is changing on a daily basis and the extension of the two-year term under Article 50 TFEU could provide some breathing room. In the context of the…
A unilateral option clause (“UOC”) can take many forms. It may grant its beneficiary the exclusive right to choose between litigation and arbitration when a dispute arises, or to choose to litigate before a specific jurisdiction, while constraining the non-beneficiary to a specific forum or a specific mode of dispute settlement. Consequently, UOCs are undoubtedly…
The Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters of 27 September 1968 was superseded by Council Regulation (EC) 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters. The latter was subsequently repealed by Regulation (EU) 1215/2012 of the…
Background UK courts senior courts have the power to issue an anti-suit injunction in favor of arbitration where a party commences foreign court proceedings in breach of a valid arbitration agreement (Senior Courts Act 1981 s.37(1)). At the heart of this controversial remedy lies a concern that anti-suit injunction is an indirect interference with the…
The cover of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy famously features a “Don’t Panic” button. In the weeks leading up to the Brexit vote, some English law firms posted reassuring articles on the possible effects a vote to leave would have for dispute resolution in London. “Don’t panic” seemed to be a common theme. Yet…
On 21 May 2015, the CJEU rendered a landmark decision regarding questions of jurisdiction under the Brussels I Regulation (recast as Regulation 1215/2012, previously Regulation 44/2001) in the case of cartel damage proceedings. We may be grappling with this decision for a long time albeit it does not explicitly address arbitration. The CJEU’s judgment brings…
On 4 December 2014, the Advocate General (“AG”) of the CJEU handed down an opinion in the Gazprom case (C-536/13) which will surprise. The case concerns the compatibility with EU Regulation 44/2001 (the “Brussels I Regulation”) of an anti-suit award made by an EU seated arbitral tribunal against EU court proceedings elsewhere. In approving this,…
As has been discussed previously on this blog, the recast Brussels Regulation contains a number of important clarifications to the arbitration exception. Paragraph 3 of Recital 12 and Article 73(2) make it clear that the recast Regulation shall not affect the application of the New York Convention (the “Convention”). The recast Regulation should allow a…
