Canada

Canada, England, English Arbitration Act, UK

(Choudhry Law and WZB Berlin Social Science Centre)/ /Leave a comment

The Supreme Court of Canada’s recent decision in Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65 potentially poses an inadvertent, yet serious, threat to judicial deference to domestic commercial arbitration in Canada. Until Vavilov, courts hearing appeals on questions of law from arbitral tribunals applied the deferential “reasonableness” standard of review. Vavilov…

Canada, ISDS, Mexico, USA, USMCA

(Steptoe & Johnson LLP)/ /1 Comment
Young ICCA

Introduction The United States, Mexico, and Canada renegotiated the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 2018. As a result of these renegotiations, the parties agreed on new terms to formulate “NAFTA 2.0” or the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in the United States, the CUSMA in Canada and, the T-MEC in Mexico. The USMCA aims…

Appellate Body, Canada, Dispute Settlement, EU Law, Trade, WTO

(Kaufman Trade Law)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction The World Trade Organization (the “WTO”) is at an inflection point. As global dynamics shift, members must consider whether the institution, as it is currently configured, has passed its prime. The success of the WTO to date epitomizes the pinnacle of an apparent ideological consensus. However, the current recession of that consensus is forcing…

Canada, Class arbitration, Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), North America, UNCITRAL Model Law

(Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP) and / /Leave a comment

Introduction The United States and its neighbor to the north, Canada, share the world’s longest border, a common language, and similar values, resulting in one of the most stable and mutually beneficial international business relationships in the world. Indeed the United States is Canada’s largest trading partner, and Canada is the United States’ second largest…

Canada, European Union, Latin America, Mexico, NAFTA, USA, USMCA

(IÉSEG )/ /Leave a comment

On Friday December 7th, a distinguished panel of government negotiators, experienced investment arbitrators and senior legal advisors gathered in Paris at the law faculty of the University Paris II Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) to discuss the US-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA) also called the “New NAFTA” signed on November 30th. The panel was held as part of…

Canada, Fork in the road, ISDS, Mexico, NAFTA, USA, USMCA

(Hughes Hubbard & Reed)/ /3 Comments

Introduction: The Pro-State Orientation of the USMCA Chapter 14 of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) presents a model of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) that fundamentally realigns the balance between investors and states in favor of the latter. This realignment consists in the USMCA’s structure and specific provisions. Structurally, the USMCA eliminates ISDS between Canadian investors…

Canada, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investment Treaties, Investor-State arbitration, ISDS, Mexico, NAFTA, USA, USMCA

, (Vinson & Elkins LLP)/ /Leave a comment
Young ITA

President Trump’s October 1, 2018 announcement that the United States, Canada, and Mexico have reached an agreement to replace the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) marks a veritable sea change in investor-state dispute settlement in the region. Previous and prospective users of NAFTA’s dispute resolution procedures will immediately note that this new free-trade…

Austria, BIT, Canada, CETA, China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, China-Korea Free Trade Agreement, Corporate Social Responsibility, India, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, Investor-State arbitration, ISDS, Norway, TPP

(Herbert Smith Freehills China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre of UNSW Law)/ /1 Comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

In the context of the backlash against investor-state dispute settlement (“ISDS”), one of the main criticisms is the asymmetric nature of investment treaties, which impose numerous obligations on the States, but do not seem to hold corporations accountable for the social, environmental and economic consequences of their activities. Some recent developments reflect a redirection away…

Adverse Inference, Algeria, Arbitration, Canada, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Good Faith, IBA Rules of Evidence, Investment protection, Investor-State arbitration, Poland, Venezuela

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Principles of adverse inferences are applied universally. International law endorses the arbitrator’s inherent authority to draw adverse inferences against a party for unjustified non-compliance with an order to produce information. Moreover, arbitrators can rely on general principles of law when applying adverse inferences as a basis for decisions. The general principle of good faith imposes…

Appointment of arbitrators, Canada, Conference, Diversity, national court, North America, Transparency, Transparency in investment arbitrations, UK, United States

(Willoughby & Hoefer)/ /Leave a comment

On the heels of a year that has seen the rise of populist nationalism, skepticism of multilateral trade agreements and calls to tighten in some ways the flow of people across borders – perhaps most visibly in the United States and across Europe, but with manifestations elsewhere – many communities saw a retreat from international…

Anti-arbitration, Anti-ISDS Propaganda, Canada, China, Financial Industry, Investor-State arbitration, ISDS, Mexico, NAFTA, Negotiation, Pro arbitration, United States, USMCA

/ /1 Comment

Debates about the propriety of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) were revived by a recent letter by U.S. academics, which urged the abandonment of ISDS in the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This letter repeated arguments that are familiar from prior ISDS debates, such as that ISDS “grants foreign corporations and investors rights to skirt domestic…

Canada, Egypt, Free Trade Agreements, ICSID Arbitration, NAFTA, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership

/ /2 Comments

On June 6, 2016, the ICSID Secretary General registered a request for arbitration in Global Telecom Holding (GTH) v. Canada. Although the text of the arbitral claim is not yet public, it appears likely that the dispute relates to GTH’s involvement (or attempted involvement) in Canada’s wireless telecommunications sector. This claim may be historic for…

Australia, Canada, CETA, China, Japan, New Zealand, Peru, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

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by Catherine H. Gibson (Assistant Editor for North America) The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement (official text here) is one in a series of significant investment agreements that the United States will negotiate in the coming months and years – next in line are the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) Agreement and the United States-China bilateral…

Canada, ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, Italy, Nationality requirement in arbitration clauses, UNCITRAL, Venezuela

(Covington and Burling LLP)/ /Leave a comment

For natural persons, possession of the nationality of the host state is an absolute bar to becoming a party to ICSID proceedings against that state. Article 25 of the ICSID Convention delimits the scope of arbitral jurisdiction to investment disputes between a ‘Contracting State’ and a ‘national of another Contracting State’, defined as ‘any natural…

Africa, Amicus Curiae, BIT, Canada, Investment Arbitration, Oil & Gas

(Allen & Overy LLP) and (A&O Shearman)/ /Leave a comment

In the past two years, Canada has signed BITs with nine African states: Benin (January 2013), United Republic of Tanzania (May 2013), Cameroon (March 2014), Nigeria (May 2014), Senegal (November 2014), Mali (November 2014), Cote d’Ivoire (November 2014), Burkina Faso (April 2015) and most recently Guinea (May 2015). The first eight of these treaties (the…

BIT, Canada, CETA, China, Free Trade Agreements

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If the Canada-China BIT is any guide, then the US-China BIT may prove to be profoundly state-friendly. Unlike Canada’s 2004 model investment agreement and the investment chapter of the 2014 Canada-European Union Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement (CETA), the Canada-China BIT offers only negligible establishment-phase protections and lacks disciplines on state-owned enterprises. With such provisions,…

Arbitration, BIT, Canada, Foreign Investment Law, ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, Investment Arbitration, Middle East, Uncategorized, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

In an Award on Jurisdiction rendered earlier this year under the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (the “ICSID Convention”) in ICSID Case No. ARB/11/7 – National Gas S.A.E. v. Arab Republic of Egypt (a copy of which is electronically available on the official Investment Treaty Arbitration…

Arbitration, Arbitration Awards, Canada, Consumer contracts, Domestic Courts, Pro arbitration

(McGill University Faculty of Law)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

The pronouncements of the highest-ranking court are key indicators of a legal system’s stance vis-à-vis arbitration and other private means of dispute resolution. Over the past decade, the Supreme Court of Canada has dealt with arbitration in a number of cases, and it initially did so in a manner that revealed a very supportive attitude….

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,…

ASEAN, Asia-Pacific, Canada, Investment Arbitration, NAFTA, Trade

(University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

The Obama Administration’s only current regional trade negotiations, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), continue slowly toward a possible conclusion in 2013, with 12 rounds of negotiations having been completed as of the end of May 2012. A major element of a re-energized American focus on political, security and economic considerations in Asia, the TPP if it…

Canada, Investment Arbitration

(Notre Dame Law School)/ /1 Comment

The shoe has finally dropped. Ever since the Invictus Memo was released to the public we knew that the Ecuadorian Plaintiffs were considering twenty-seven different countries to enforce the $18.2 Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron. With Chevron’s far-flung assets, it was plausible that the Plaintiffs would choose to enforce the judgment in countries with close ties…

Arbitration Agreements, Canada, Jurisdiction

(Caribbean Arbitrators, Arbitration Place, 33 Bedford Row Chambers)/ /1 Comment

Canada’s highest court, the Supreme Court of Canada, recently considered whether a party had waived its right to rely on arbitration and forum selection clauses by submitting a statement of defence on the merits in an Ontario court litigation in which it also pleaded the clauses. The Court ruled that there had been no waiver….

Arbitration, Canada, Enforcement, ICSID Convention, International arbitration, Investment Arbitration, Jurisdiction, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, NAFTA

(Herbert Smith Freehills LLP)/ /Leave a comment
Herbert Smith Freehills

As we approach the first anniversary of the UK Supreme Court’s landmark decision in the case of Dallah Estate and Tourism Holding Company v The Ministry of Religious Affairs, Government of Pakistan, it is only fitting that we would encounter a case which would cause us to revisit the issue of the proper standard of…

Arbitration, Arbitration Act, Canada, Consumer contracts, Enforcement of an arbitration clause, North America

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

Anyone considering Canada as the seat of an arbitration or as one among several jurisdictions where recognition and enforcement proceedings could be commenced should pay close attention to the Supreme Court of Canada’s March 18 decision in Seidel v. TELUS Communications Inc., 2011 SCC 15, which appears to mark a philosophical shift in Canadian arbitration…