2023 Paris Arbitration Week (PAW) gathered over 1,400 attendees, in person and online, and featured over 145 events over five days. Kluwer Arbitration Blog is the official media partner of PAW. The first day of PAW kicked off with the keynote address by Dr Yas Banifatemi, founding partner of Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes. In keeping…
On 17 and 24 February 2023, speakers from various jurisdictions convened webinars to address ESG, climate change and EU-related issues. Jonathan Barnett (Nivalion AG) reports. Keynote Speech: The Expanding Universe of Climate Change Disputes: Annette Magnusson (Climate Change Counsel) Annette Magnusson delivered the keynote speech on “The Expanding Universe of Climate Change Disputes” to…
The past year has seen a variety of exogenous impacts to global energy markets: from the sanctions flowing from Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, to the supply chain aftershocks of the COVID Pandemic, to hiccups in the commercial and government policy implementations of the global Energy Transition. International arbitration too has seen its share…
Renewable energy is front-and-centre in the Japanese energy agenda. Japan is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels for its electricity generation needs with one-third of its carbon emissions coming from its 78 thermal power stations. The Japanese prime minister has pledged that Japan will be carbon neutral by 2050 leading to the Japanese Ministry of…
Amid a push for more decisive action toward energy transition, countries around the world are facing pressure to innovate and adopt sweeping legislative amendments, all while trying to avoid investment claims by foreign investors affected by the changing regulatory frameworks. Among the countries performing this balancing act, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other Western Balkans countries…
As part of the 2022 Istanbul Arbitration Week (ISTAW) organized from 10 to 14 October 2022, the Energy Disputes Arbitration Center (EDAC), which is the only energy sector-based arbitration center with its own rules, hosted several panels in relation to energy arbitration at historical Sait Halim Pasha Mansion by the Bosphorus. This post provides a…
As part of the 2022 Istanbul Arbitration Week (ISTAW) organized from 10 to 14 October 2022, the Energy Disputes Arbitration Center (EDAC) hosted two panels in relation to arbitration developments in Turkey and Istanbul’s place in the world of arbitration, on which this post aims to report (see also our coverage of ISTAW energy-related panels)….
The DIS 2022 Autumn Conference took place on 15 September 2022, following the traditional Gala Dinner at the spectacular Palace Charlottenburg the evening before. The Autumn Conference is one of two of the DIS’ main annual conferences, traditionally held in English gathering arbitration practitioners from all over the world to exchange ideas and initiate thought-provoking…
A North American energy trade war may be on the horizon. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) is backstepping the opening of Mexican energy markets by halting the issuance of permits, providing competitive advantages to state-owned enterprises, and attacking independent regulators. The re-centralization of the energy sector is being done in the name of Mexico’s…
On the last day of the #LIDW22, Herbert Smith Freehills, Linklaters, Norton Rose Fulbright, Twenty Essex, Vinson & Elkins, and Clyde & Co hosted a session on “The future of energy disputes in a post-covid world”. The speakers – Michael Ashcroft QC (Twenty Essex), Rebecca James (Linklaters), Colin Johnson (HKA), Richard Power (Clyde & Co),…
As part of the 2022 Paris Arbitration Week, Three Crowns held on 31 March 2022 a conference on “Renewable Energy and Arbitration”. The panel was comprised of Marc Péresse (Head of Legal Offshore Wind at EDF Renewables), Fabien Roques (Executive Vice President with Compass Lexecon and Associate Professor in Economics at Paris Dauphine and at…
In 2021, we witnessed a number of interesting developments in the field of investment arbitration in Latin America. From Mexico’s actions potentially triggering numerous treaty claims, to Colombia’s four consecutive victories, to Ecuador’s return to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) Convention. Our authors did a tremendous job covering and sharing their…
On day one of the Hong Kong Arbitration Week 2021, Latham & Watkins LLP (“Latham & Watkins”) hosted a virtual workshop to explore the role of renewables in a rapidly changing world and how this growth will impact disputes in renewables and other energy markets. Ing Loong Yang, Partner at Latham & Watkins (Hong Kong),…
Since his inauguration in December 2018, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has endeavored to reverse the liberalization of the energy market achieved by his predecessor. In the last few months, actions to resume government control of Mexico’s free energy markets have intensified with the adoption and proposal of regulation affecting investor’s rights and…
On December 11, 2020, the Dispute Resolution Interest Group (“DRIG”) of the American Society of International Law (“ASIL”) hosted a webinar on “The Future of Investor-State Dispute Settlement under the Energy Charter Treaty.” The event featured Amaia Rivas Kortazar, André von Walter, Crina Baltag, and Yuriy Pochtovyk, and was moderated by DRIG co-chairs Simon Batifort…
The Renewable Energy Target (RET), Australia’s key policy instrument for encouraging electricity generation from renewable sources, has been described as a policy hampered by politicisation. Notwithstanding such criticism, in 2019, it was reported that Australia’s energy system is undergoing the transition to renewables faster than any other country in the world.1)Blakers et al., (2019) “Pathway…
Following on the first day of Washington Arbitration Week (WAW), covered in detail here, later programming of WAW did not shy away from further in-depth discussions. This post highlights programming that dug into energy and the environment, arbitration from the client’s perspective, infrastructure disputes during the pandemic, and last but not least, damages valuation. …
This is the second of a two-part blog post series for an upcoming publication titled International Arbitration and the COVID-19 Revolution edited by us. As detailed in Part 1 of this series, the book contains 17 chapters from 31 leading international arbitration practitioners. The focus of the contributions range from procedural topics in international arbitration…
How severely are international construction projects affected by global COVID-19 pandemic? What does the COVID-19 pandemic mean for international construction disputes? As with so many other questions arising in relation to the pandemic, these questions will only be answered definitively in retrospect. For construction arbitration practitioners though, one of the immediate and graspable effects has…
In 2013 Mexico embarked on a major energy reform by amending its Constitution, thereby allowing the participation of private investors in the exploration and extraction of oil & gas and the generation of electricity, particularly from clean and low-cost energy sources. Subsequently, Certificates of Clean Energy (“CELs“) were introduced on 31 October 2014 to promote…
The recently leaked treaty for the termination of intra-EU BITs can be seen as the culmination of an ongoing effort by the European Commission to discourage investment arbitration between Member States, reflecting, in the eyes of many, a tension between public international law and EU law. In spite of this, and even after the Court…
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…
It is well known that disputes arising from the realisation of major energy and infrastructure projects are often exceptionally complex, long, and expensive. They are of high factual and technical complexity with a great volume of evidence, witnesses and experts and involve multiple parties with the fragmentation of responsibilities. As such, one of the main…
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…
