Introduction Document production has become a standard phase in international arbitration, but the documents sought and produced often turn out to be voluminous. As such, document production is perceived as a time-consuming, costly, and burdensome process. This has prompted practitioners to come up with the Rules on the Efficient Conduct of Proceedings in International Arbitration (“Prague…
Since its establishment in 2018 by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan, the Tashkent International Arbitration Centre (the “TIAC”) has kept abreast the evolution of the global social and economic climate and modern international arbitration practices, and sought to modernize its administration of international arbitrations to meet current and future challenges faced by…
An emerging consideration in international arbitration is the use of evidence acquired illegally. Illegally obtained evidence can take a variety of forms, including, for example, illicit recordings, information obtained by trespass, and ‘hacked evidence’. ‘Hacked evidence’ refers to materials obtained through unauthorised access to an electronic system (either directly or through a third party), and…
Arbitration Tech Toolbox is a new series on the Kluwer Arbitration Blog that aims to stimulate broader discussion and debate in the arbitration community on arbitration-related technology, its impact, and its future. We believe everyone stands to gain from a discussion of best practices surrounding the ongoing adoption of new technologies and identification of available…
In spite of unfamiliar challenges that emerged in 2020, arbitration progress in East and Central Asia has persisted. In this post, our East and Central Asian editorial team recapitulates major arbitration trends and developments of the region featured in the past year from the perspectives of national and interstate policies, judicial and legislative changes, as…
The Summer 2020 Kluwer Arbitration Quiz was met with a very enthusiastic response: 271 submissions from around the world! The quiz focused on how the conduct of arbitrations may differ, depending on industries and regions, as revealed by data collected to date by Arbitrator Intelligence. That data is collected through responses submitted by parties and…
As the global pandemic has constrained in-person gatherings, many arbitration practitioners will have foregone most of their summer travel. Fortunately, for this summer’s holiday (quiz), we can all take a trip together to Transparency Land, where all arbitrators and institutions are above average, but may not all be equal in how they manage proceedings. With…
Document production is widely regarded as one of the most time-consuming and costly elements of international arbitration.1)The 2018 International Arbitration Survey: The Evolution of International Arbitration by the School of International Arbitration at Queen Mary University of London and White & Case lists “cost” as arbitration’s worst feature, followed by “lack of effective sanctions during…
The practice of adverse document production or disclosure is largely foreign in civil law jurisdictions like mainland China. Despite resistance, the growth of judicial practice on document production prompted the Supreme People’s Court of China (“SPC”) to make the new Rules of Evidence on Civil Procedure (“Rules of Evidence”) on December 25, 2019, effective as…
Document production in China – getting to maybe Document production (also known as “discovery”) is still a very foreign concept in China’s civil law court system. The traditional notion of “who claims, proves” (“谁主张，谁举证“) in China’s Civil Procedural Law has ingrained in people’s mind that one has to prove its case by its own evidence….
Although some might have considered 2019 a bit “lackluster”,1)Th. Clay, Panorama – Arbitrage et modes alternatifs de règlement des litiges: novembre 2018-décembre 2019, Dalloz, 26 December 2019. a number of noteworthy decisions by the Paris Court of Appeal and French Supreme Court have come to refine on the now well-established French case law on international…
Many will shy away from this article on account of its mere title. This is understandable considering that document production tends to be seen as a nightmarish phase in arbitration for junior, senior lawyers and arbitrators alike. This is because, if not handled properly, document production can turn into a very costly and time-consuming exercise….
In the last few years, the international arbitration community has started to engage in discussions on the digital transformation of dispute resolution and on artificial intelligence (also on this blog). Scholars and arbitration practitioners have been speculating on how artificial intelligence might be used in arbitral proceedings and the potential impact it might have on…
The main concerns of parties when considering arbitration are the costs and length of arbitration proceedings (see, e.g., Queen Mary University of London 2018 International Arbitration Survey). The popularity of arbitration as a method of resolving construction disputes thus depends largely on whether costs can be reduced and efficiency maintained. This is particularly the case…
The X CAI Costa Rica held by the Costa Rican Chapter of the ICC and its Arbitration Commission, took place in San Jose, Costa Rica between February 24 and 27, 2019. Ten years have led to its consolidation as one of the most important ICC events in the region. This year’s intensive program included several…
Document production is one of the most important and controversial topics in international arbitration. Some practitioners consider the document production as “an essential element of justice”, whereas some others consider it as “a waste of time and money”. So, where does the truth lie? Does Common Law Provide Better Justice than Civil Law or Vice…
In Parts 1 – 3 of our Efficient Arbitration Series, we introduced various efficiency tools. In Part 4 we will discuss one of these tools which has considerable savings potential: “document production”. Presenting the right evidence is key in arbitration. But, what if a party does not have the documents it needs to prove its…
This is one of the five construction arbitration posts, providing the technical discussion from the SCAI, CAM, TILPA conference in Geneva and Mexico City. The authors include: Ms Almudena Otero De La Vega (on State enterprises) Ms Tanya Landon & Ms Azal Khan (on evidence), Dr Manuel Arrollo (on multiple procedures), Mr Serge Y. Bodart…
The process of document production in international arbitration is important. Documentary evidence is often the primary category of evidence; and legal costs associated with it tend to constitute a significant proportion of the overall costs of arbitral proceedings. Document production may also be one of the very reasons why arbitration has been preferred over litigation….
On 23 February 2017, three prominent international arbitrators shared their views and experience on the controversial question of the influence of legal traditions on arbitrators and arbitral proceedings. Juliet Blanch, Bernard Hanotiau and Pedro J. Martinez-Fraga were interviewed by Oliver Caprasse and Claire Morel de Westgaver at an event jointly organised by Belgian arbitration institution…
Having disposed of yet another forest worth of pristine hearing bundles, I wonder: when will arbitration finally go paperless? Gillian Lemaire asked the same question in a 2014 piece called “Where Do We Stand?” She looked at the legal and factual obstacles that paperless arbitrations face. Finding that, in reality, there were few, she proposed…
by Reto Marghitola, Vischer AG Document production, the topic of my new book, is a permanent issue in international arbitration. Now, it has even entered the fictional world of the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot. Document production is an important subject matter of this year’s competition. Many of the readers of this post…
As a fitting tribute to the vision of the first dedicated arbitration education institution, the School of International Arbitration (SIA) marked its 30th anniversary with a two day conference looking back and looking forwards. Entitled “The Evolution and Future of International Arbitration: The Next 30 years”, it brought together over 200 graduates, academics and practitioners…
Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously introduced into the American lexicon the oxymoronic concept of the “known unknown”—“that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.”1)See Michiko Kakutani, Rumsfeld’s Defense of Known Decisions, N.Y. TIMES (Feb. 3, 2011), https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/04/books/04book.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1& (reviewing DONALD RUMSFELD, KNOWN AND UNKNOWN: A MEMIOR (2011)). A…
