International arbitration

ICSID Convention, International arbitration, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Trans-Pacific Partnership

(Public Citizen)/ /1 Comment

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations have become the territory where a brewing perfect storm over investor-state dispute resolution (ISDR) is making landfall. The June 2012 leak of the draft TPP Investment Chapter text added energy, but much more is fueling this tempest. In general the ISDR system is coming under increased scrutiny. Public and policymaker concerns…

Arbitration, BIT, Damages, ICSID Convention, International arbitration, International Law, Latin America, Manifest disregard of the law

(New York Law School)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

By Tai-Heng Cheng* & Lucas Bento** Introduction On October 5th, 2012, a split ICSID tribunal determined that the Republic of Ecuador had breached the US-Ecuador bilateral investment treaty (“BIT”), and awarded damages of US$1.77 billion (US$2.3 billion with interest applied), reportedly the largest award ever to have been issued by an ICSID tribunal. This award…

Arbitration, Arbitration Awards, Arbitration clause, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Commercial Arbitration, Corporate Counsel's view, Domestic law, English Law, Expedited arbitration, ICC Arbitration, ICSID Convention, International arbitration, Investment Arbitration, LCIA Arbitration, New York Convention

(Conway & Partners)/ /Leave a comment

There are many clients who are often engaged in industrious works that result in disputes. Typically, the applicable arbitral agreements requirement submitting claims to international arbitration and, in this author’s opinion, appropriately so. However, these same clients may also be subject to frequent claim assertions that lack any true merit. Despite this, there is not…

Appointment of arbitrators, Efficiency, International arbitration, Suggestions to improve transparency and access to usable data

(Bocconi University)/ /9 Comments
Arbitrator Intelligence

In a recent post, here, I argued that the time has come to move on from the gumshoe clue-hunting approach currently employed to select international arbitrators. Existing practices are severely outdated and unduly expensive in an era of information and technological efficiency. The process for selecting arbitrators, I argued, should be more transparent and key…

Arbitral seat, Arbitration, International arbitration, Middle East, New York Convention, Seat of the arbitration

(Baker & McKenzie)/ /Leave a comment

On 14 October 2012, Justice David Williams of the DIFC Court of First Instance (Dubai International Financial Centre) applied a course correction by issuing a decision confirming the jurisdiction of the DIFC Courts to grant a stay in the presence of a valid arbitration agreement providing for a seat of arbitration outside the DIFC. Justice…

Arbitration, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, International arbitration, Latin America

(Linklaters)/ /1 Comment

A few months ago I wrote a post on this Blog about what I saw as “work left to do” in the Spanish arbitration system. I started with the need to build a regional court of arbitration on a par with those well-known centres in other jurisdictions, with the fundamental aim of taking advantage of…

International arbitration, NAFTA, Transparency in investment arbitrations

(Investment Arbitration Reporter)/ /3 Comments

Transparency of investment treaty arbitration is back on the radar this week as delegations convene in Vienna for the latest meeting of the UNCITRAL Working Group II on Arbitration and Conciliation. While governments debate the scope and content of new transparency obligations, one issue that has received less attention is a sometimes-seen corollary of greater…

Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Brazil, Domestic law, English Law, International arbitration, Law governing the arbitration agreement, Seat of the arbitration, UNCITRAL Model Law

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

The English Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Sulamerica CIA Nacional De Seguros SA v Enesa Engenharia SA [2012] EWCA Civ 638, which is discussed in a recent post by Guy Pendell, underscores an important weakness in the international arbitration system’s legal framework. While everyone accepts that the arbitration agreement is the foundation of an…

Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Commercial Arbitration, ICC Arbitration, International arbitration, Investment Arbitration

(Conway & Partners)/ /3 Comments

Last Monday I was honored with the opportunity to serve as one of the speakers for the annual ICC New York Conference. With an overflowing turnout and impressive list of panelists, it was a successful event. One interesting event of note was that the ICC took this opportunity to release the ICC Commission Report on…

International arbitration

(Independent Arbitrator)/ /Leave a comment

Reminder — The September 1 deadline is now drawing near for the Call for Papers, for the Institute of Transnational Arbitration (ITA)’s Winter Forum in Miami on January 24-25. Details of the Call for Papers, which focuses on works-in-progress in the area of international arbitration, are available at: https://www.cailaw.org/ita/2013winforum_papers.pdf and/or https://wolterskluwerblogs.com/?s=winter. We anticipate announcing the…

Appointment of arbitrators, Arbitrators, Efficiency, International arbitration, Suggestions to improve transparency and access to usable data

(Bocconi University)/ /2 Comments
Arbitrator Intelligence

As Rusty Park remarked, “[I]n real estate the three key elements are ‘location, location, location,’ … in arbitration the applicable trinity is ‘arbitrator, arbitrator, arbitrator.”’ Empirical studies consistently verify that parties’ ability to select arbitrators is one of the primary reasons they select arbitration as a means of dispute resolution. Parties also consistently vote with…

ICSID Convention, International arbitration, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Latin America

(Investment Arbitration Reporter)/ /Leave a comment

In a recent blog post, Gary Born highlighted the current role of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in administering state-to-state arbitrations. Given that the PCA has recently released its Annual Report for 2011, I thought I’d complement Gary’s post with some further information about the PCA’s role in administering investor-to-state arbitrations. It’s useful to set…

ICC Arbitration, International arbitration, Investment Arbitration

(Conway & Partners)/ /Leave a comment

On September 10, 2012, The International Chamber of Commerce (“ICC”) in New York will be hosting the seventh annual conference. Located in New York City, the ICC Conference will be looking at investor-state arbitration, specifically under the rules of the ICC. The ICC has been working hard to build up its profile in the international…

Anti-arbitration, Costs in arbitral proceedings, Dispute resolution clause, International arbitration, Pro arbitration

(MDisputes)/ /2 Comments

Here are some recent issues colleagues or acquaintences tell me they are facing with international arbitration, without (or with slightly altered) information that might identify a particular proceeding or party. My own comments follow each. I invite readers to amplify with their own views on how to handle these situations, or compare with issues they…

Arbitral Tribunal, Discovery, International arbitration, Section 1782 Discovery, U.S. Supreme Court

(King & Spalding)/ /Leave a comment

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which sits in Atlanta, waded into the debate concerning whether 28 U.S.C. § 1782 — which provides U.S. district courts with the power to order parties to give testimony or produce documents “for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal” —…

Appeal, Arbitration, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, International arbitration, Latin America, Section 1782 Discovery, South America

(Astigarraga Davis)/ /Leave a comment

On June 25th, 2012 the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which covers all federal appeals emanating from the states of Florida, Georgia and Alabama, decided that a private commercial arbitration tribunal in Ecuador used by the parties to resolve a commercial dispute is a ‘tribunal’ for purposes of the collection of…

Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Commercial Arbitration, International arbitration

(Editor in Chief, ASA Bulletin; LALIVE)/ /1 Comment

On 1 June 2012, the new revised version of the Swiss Rules of International Arbitration (“Swiss Rules”) will come into force.  According to Article 1.3, the new Rules will apply to all Swiss Rules proceedings in which the Request for Arbitration is submitted after 1 June 2012, unless the Parties agree otherwise. The Swiss Rules…

Appointment of arbitrators, Arbitral seat, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitrators, Efficiency, International arbitration, Mediation, Seat of the arbitration

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

The China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (“CIETAC“) has recently published its revised Arbitration Rules, which will come into force on 1 May 2012 (the “2012 Rules“). This is the seventh revision of the CIETAC Rules since they were first published in 1956. Whilst the majority of the changes in the 2012 Rules are…

Arbitration Act, International arbitration, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal

(Norton Rose Fulbright)/ /Leave a comment
YSIAC

Following a previous round of amendments in 2009 that came into effect on 1 January 2010, the Singapore Ministry of Law published further proposed amendments to Singapore’s International Arbitration Act (“the IAA”) on 8 March 2012. The proposals took into account views garnered from a public consultation process. There are four key proposals in this…

Annulment, International arbitration, Public Policy, Sport arbitration, Supreme Court, Switzerland

(von Segesser Law Offices)/ /Leave a comment

With its decision of 27 March 2012, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court held unlawful a disciplinary sanction by which FIFA threatened the football player Matuzalem with a lifetime ban in case he failed to pay a damage claim of his former club and employer. By an earlier decision of the CAS, Francelino da Silva Matuzalem,…

Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, ICSID Convention, International arbitration, International Courts, International Law, NAFTA

(Richmond School of Law)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

The Rules, Practice, and Jurisprudence of International Courts and Tribunals (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2012) has just shipped. I am the (proud) editor and a contributor of the book and am delighted to have the opportunity to bring it to the attention of this group. I think it will be of special interest to arbitration practitioners….

International arbitration, Investment Arbitration

(Richmond School of Law)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

The Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law is next week (March 28 – 31) at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, DC. (register here.) I have the honor to co-chair the meeting with Cymie Payne and Harlan Cohen and, together with a wonderful Program Committee, we put together a great program centered around…

Arbitration, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, BIT, Class arbitration, International arbitration, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection

(University of Victoria Faculty of Law)/ /Leave a comment

International arbitration has long played an important role in resolving disputes that arise out of political and economic crises.   “Arbitration in Times of Crisis” is the theme of the 9th Annual ITA-ASIL Conference on 28 March 2012 in Washington, D.C. (see program).   The conference will focus on lessons from the past use of arbitral mechanisms…