Jurisdiction

Challenge of Arbitral Award, England, English courts, English Law, Jurisdiction, Section 68 challenge, UK

, (Squire Patton Boggs)/ /Leave a comment

On 9 August 2024, the Commercial High Court of England and Wales (the “Court”) has declined to set aside the Permanent Court of Arbitration (“PCA”) investment award issued in Diag & Mr. Josef Stava v Czech Republic (the “Award”), rejecting the jurisdictional challenges raised by the Czech Republic (the “Judgement”). The Czech Republic challenged the…

Canada, Domestic arbitration, Jurisdiction, NAFTA, Set aside an international arbitral award

(Mechantaf Law)/ /Leave a comment

In July and August 2024, the Court of Appeal for Ontario (CA) and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (SCJ) have addressed critical questions concerning the jurisdiction of arbitration tribunals. Two noteworthy decisions have emerged: the first shedding light on the tribunal’s authority to correctly apply matters within its own jurisdiction, and the second on…

Competence, Georgia, Independence and Impartiality, Jurisdiction

(Cocaz Legal LLC)/ /Leave a comment

Despite many years of hard and tireless work for the purposes of ADR promotion in Georgia, the recent attitude of the courts towards arbitration causes significant problems at the level of basic concepts and principles. To demonstrate this, it is enough to take a look at two high-profile 2023 decisions of the Tbilisi Court of…

Jurisdiction, Non-signatory, United States Courts

(UCLA)/ /Leave a comment

On March 11, 2024, in Swinerton Builders, Inc. v. Argonaut Insurance Company, a district court in the Ninth Circuit found a valid arbitration agreement between the contractor, Swinerton Builders, Inc. (“Swinerton”), and the non-signatory insurer, Argonaut Insurance Co. (“Argonaut”), of its subcontractor, Northern Services, Inc. (“Northern”). No. 23-CV-4158 (DMR), 2024 WL 1057473 (N.D. Cal. Mar….

Admissibility, Competence-Competence, Fiji, Jurisdiction, Multi-tiered clauses, Pre-arbitral procedure, Repudiation

(Munro Leys)/ /Leave a comment

This article discusses the approach taken by the High Court of Fiji (“Court”) on the oft written about topic of whether failure to adhere to a multi-tiered dispute resolution clause is an issue of jurisdiction or admissibility. As previously reported, last year, in Housing Authority v Top Symphony [2023] FJHC 301 (“Top Symphony”), the Court…

Appeal, Arbitral seat, Hong Kong, Interim measures, Jurisdiction, Singapore

, (Allen & Overy LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Hong Kong and Singapore often take the top spots as the preferred arbitral seats in Asia and globally.1)See for instance the 2021 and 2018 Queen Mary University London International Arbitration Surveys. Hong Kong and Singapore rank top three as the most preferred seats in the 2021 survey, and top three in the 2018 survey. These…

India, Indus Waters Treaty, Jurisdiction, Pakistan, Permanent Court of Arbitration

, / /Leave a comment

Muddled in severe stress and conflict since the 1950s, the transboundary Indus basin is home to one of the longest rivers in Asia. Barraging disputes led to the signing of the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 (“IWT”) between Pakistan and India. Oft-cited as one of the most successful transboundary water-sharing mechanisms in the world, the…

Canada, CanArb Week, Court Proceedings, Disclosure, Jurisdiction

(Timothy Hughes Arbitration) and (Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Practitioners from Canada and around the world gathered in Toronto from October 16-18, 2023, for the fourth iteration of CanArb Week. The week opened with a keynote address from Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, the Hon. Robert Rae, who invoked Blaise Pascal with a reminder that “law without force is powerless, but force without…

BIT, Enforcement, India, Investment Disputes, Investor-State arbitration, Jurisdiction, Set aside an arbitral award, Singapore, Switzerland

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

In 2013, Deutsche Telekom AG (“DT”), a German corporation, commenced an UNCITRAL arbitration in Switzerland under the Germany-India BIT claiming that India had (amongst other things) breached the fair and equitable treatment (“FET”) standard. In the arbitration, India raised various jurisdictional objections, which the Tribunal rejected in an Interim Award issued on 13 December 2017….

England, English Arbitration Act, Jurisdiction

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

On 6 September 2023, the Law Commission of England and Wales issued its final report and draft Bill proposing amendments to the Arbitration Act 1996 (the Act). In this post we focus on the Law Commission’s recommendations regarding jurisdictional challenges in respect of English-seated arbitrations and in particular how its two recommendations (assuming that they…

Competence-Competence, England, English Arbitration Act, Jurisdiction

(Khan Saifur Rahman & Associates)/ /Leave a comment

The UK Law Commission recently proposed drastic reform to section 67 of the English Arbitration Act 1996 that deals with the challenge of an award on the ground of lack of substantive jurisdiction in an English seated arbitration. The Law Commission’s First Consultation Paper published in September 2022 initially recommended the challenge under section 67…

Advance on Costs, DIAC, Dubai, Jurisdiction, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

In a recent ruling of 8 June 2023 in Case No. 1514 of 2022, the Dubai Court of Cassation has taken a fresh look at a number of procedural questions that frequently arise in UAE-seated arbitrations under the 2018 UAE Federal Arbitration Law (“FAL”). There are three particular issues stemming from this recent ruling of…

2022 in Review, Admissibility, Alternative fee arrangements, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Cambodia, Enforcement, Jurisdiction, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam

(Clifford Chance Asia) and / /Leave a comment

The year 2022 seems to have passed in a flash, but not without bringing some exciting developments for the arbitration scene in Southeast Asia. From the Southeast Asia editorial team, here are some of the past year’s highlights.   Developments in the law and jurisprudence Contributors to the Kluwer Arbitration Blog critically analysed the Singapore…

Arbitrator Bias, Canada, CanArb Week, Jurisdiction, Non-signatory, Stay of Proceedings

(Woods LLP)/ /Leave a comment

The third edition of CanArb Week took place in Montréal from October 19 to 21, 2022. Speakers from all walks of arbitration life (academics, arbitrators, counsel, experts, leaders of arbitral institutions, and third party funders), as well as justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, gathered in the “Paris of North America”, to the delight of…

Jurisdiction, Pleadings, Remission, Set aside an arbitral award, Singapore

(Singapore Management University)/ /Leave a comment

When determining what matters fall within the scope of submission to arbitration, five sources are relevant: the parties’ pleadings, the agreed list of issues, opening statements, evidence adduced, and closing submissions: CDM v CDP [2021] 2 SLR 235 at [18]. If a court, on an analysis of these five sources, finds that an award should…

Admissibility, Arbitration Award, Hong Kong, Jurisdiction, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal

(University of Hong Kong)/ /Leave a comment
ArbitralWomen

The differences between admissibility and jurisdiction in arbitration have been recognized in various jurisdictions, such as the UK, US and Singapore, and they have been covered extensively in academic scholarship. This post will discuss the distinctions drawn between admissibility and jurisdiction by the Court of Appeal in Hong Kong in C v D.1)[2022] HKCA 729;…

ICSID, International arbitration, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Jurisdiction

/ /2 Comments

The debate surrounding the meaning and scope of the term ‘investment’ under the ICSID Convention is a product of the larger tussle between capital exporting and capital importing states, which convened at Washington in the search for a mutually beneficial agreement on foreign investments. It has been argued by Prof. Julian Davis Mortenson that ‘investment’…

Arbitrability, Canada, Costs, Discovery, Jurisdiction, USA

(Dentons) and (Dentons US LLP)/ /Leave a comment

A dual webinar series “Do You Know What Your Neighbour is Doing?” (available at links here and here) recently hosted by Dentons provided an overview of how to navigate international arbitration in the United States (“US”) and Canada. The first webinar was moderated by Rachel Howie, FCIArb (Calgary). It featured three panelists who discussed international…

India, Judgment, Judicial intervention, Jurisdiction

(JSA, Advocates & Solicitors) and (J. Sagar Associates)/ /Leave a comment

India is witnessing a protracted corporate battle — fought before multiple courts and an India-seated SIAC arbitral tribunal — for control over one of its largest retail chains. This heavily publicised dispute between Amazon and the Future group took an unexpected turn in January this year when a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court…

Costa Rica, Denial of justice, Investment, Jurisdiction, Past Investment, Treaty Interpretation

(Eversheds Sutherland), (Juan Felipe Merizalde Abogados), and (Haro, Carbia & Kibrit, S.C.)/ /Leave a comment

The recently surfaced award in IC Power Asia Development Ltd. v. Guatemala dated 7 October 2020 reveals the reasoning of the Tribunal’s majority in dismissing IC Power’s claims on the merits. A majority of Albert Jan van den Berg (chair) and Raúl Vinuesa (Respondent’s appointee) dismissed IC Power’s claims on the merits, while Guido Santiago…

Admissibility, Arbitrability, Jurisdiction, Singapore

, (Singapore Management University)/ /Leave a comment

The distinction between jurisdiction and admissibility (the “Distinction”) has important consequences in international arbitration. Chief among these is the determination of the permissible extent of a national court’s intervention regarding a final award;1)Gretta Walters, “Fitting a Square Peg into a Round Hole: Do Res Judicata Challenges in International Arbitration Constitute Jurisdictional or Admissibility Problems?” (2012)…

Additional Facility Rules, ICSID, International Investment Arbitration, Jurisdiction, Most Favoured Nation (MFN)

(Coz & Blavi)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction On November 2021, an Arbitral Tribunal issued the award in an investment arbitration case commenced by three subsidiaries of Kimberly-Clark against Venezuela. The claims where brought under the BITs between Venezuela and the Netherlands (Dutch BIT), Venezuela and Spain (Spanish BIT), and Venezuela and Belgium (Belgium BIT). The award, which is highly case-specific, established…

Admissibility, English courts, English Law, Jurisdiction, Pre-arbitral procedure, UK

, (Jenner & Block)/ /Leave a comment

Arbitration agreements often provide that certain procedural steps must be undertaken before arbitration is commenced, such as mediation or negotiation. This provides a ‘cooling-off period’ in which the parties can seek to resolve their dispute amicably before resorting to formal proceedings. When a party fails to satisfy a pre-arbitration procedural step and launches prematurely into…

Arbitration Agreements, Dubai, Jurisdiction, UAE, UAE Federal Arbitration Law

(Al Owais Advocates & Legal Consultants)/ /Leave a comment

The United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) has taken strides in increasingly accepting arbitration as the parties’ chosen dispute resolution mechanism. It is now well established that UAE courts would respect the parties’ agreement on arbitration and uphold valid arbitration clauses. In fact, Article 8(1) of the Federal Law on Arbitration, No. 6 (2018) (“UAE Arbitration Law”)…