Jurisdiction

Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Proceedings, Arbitrators, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, Enforcement, Europe, European Law, Legislation, Lis Pendens, Seat of the arbitration

(Castaldi Mourre & Partners)/ /1 Comment

The relationship between Arbitration and European Judicial Private Law has not always been easy. The bedrock European Law principle in this field, as embedded in the European Council Regulation (EC) No. 44/2001 of December 22, 2000 on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (“the Judgment Regulation”), is the…

Arbitration Awards, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, North America

(Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /Leave a comment
WilmerHale

For international arbitrations seated in the United States, there has sometimes been a tension between the so-called “American rule” against the shifting of attorneys’ fees and litigation costs to the loser of the proceedings, and the more accepted practice of fee-shifting in international arbitrations as expressed in procedural rules such as the UNCITRAL and LCIA…

Arbitrators, Europe

(Notre Dame Law School)/ /Leave a comment

Kluwer Arbitration Blog is pleased to introduce Alexis Mourre as a guest blogger for the next month. Alexis specialises in international arbitration and international litigation with the law firm of Castalde Mourre & Partners in Paris. He has served as counsel to party, co-arbitrator, sole arbitrator or expert in more than 80 international arbitral procedures,…

Arbitration Agreements, Europe, Legal Practice

(von Segesser Law Offices)/ /1 Comment

In a decision dated 5 December 2008 (4A_376/2008), the Swiss Federal Court (“SFC”) had the opportunity to address two legal topics in the context of international arbitration: The first topic was the interpretation of a pathological arbitration clause. B___ Ltd. (“Claimant-Company”) had initiated arbitration proceedings in Lugano under the ICC rules against A.___ (“Respondent”) on…

Domestic Courts, National Arbitration Laws, North America

(The London School of Economics and Political Science)/ /3 Comments
YIAG

The relevance of the Supreme Court’s Hall decision in Hall Street Associates, L.L.C. v. Mattel, Inc., 128 S. Ct. 1369 (2008) for the question of whether “manifest disregard of the law” can constitute a ground for vacatur of an arbitral award by a U.S. court has already been addressed in an earlier post to this…

Arbitration Awards, Domestic Courts, Enforcement, International Courts, International Legal Theory and Teaching, Middle East, North America

(Notre Dame Law School)/ /Leave a comment

On Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court decided Iran v. Elahi, a case that appears to fall within a data set of one. As I reported elsewhere, the case is extraordinarily complex, focusing on whether a terrorist victim judgment creditor can attach a confirmed arbitration award rendered in Iran’s favor. Although it involves exotic issues…

Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitrators, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, Europe, National Arbitration Laws, North America

(White & Case LLP)/ /1 Comment
White & Case

In two recently reported cases, parties to arbitrations have challenged arbitrator and/or institutional fees where the underlying awards have also been subject to annulment or set aside proceedings. Are these cases isolated instances or do they signal an increased trend? The answer may have widespread ramifications for how, and where, arbitrations are conducted and administered….

Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Asia-Pacific, Other Issues

(White & Case LLP)/ /Leave a comment
White & Case

The Japan Commercial Arbitration Association (the “JCAA”) introduced their International Commercial Mediation Rules (the “Rules”) on 1 January 2009. The JCAA has followed the lead of other international arbitral institutions in devising and promoting a set of mediation rules for international disputes. Settling disputes by mediation is hardly new to Japan. In a domestic context,…

Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, North America

(Notre Dame Law School)/ /Leave a comment

George Bermann, the ALI Reporter for the Restatement (Third) on the U.S. Law of International Commercial Arbitration, presented a wonderful summary of the current progress on the Restatement at the ASIL annual meeting last week. Here are a few key thoughts from my notes. The Restatement is in its early stages and it could take…

Arbitrators, Commercial Arbitration, Investment Arbitration, National Arbitration Laws, North America

(Suffolk University Law School)/ /3 Comments
American Society of International Law (ASIL)

American Bar Association’s International Law Section Criticizes the ABA Dispute Resolution Section’s Subcommittee Draft on Arbitrator Disclosure Guidelines It has been interesting to watch the strong reaction to the draft disclosure guidelines and checklist for arbitrators proposed by the Disclosure Subcommittee of the Arbitration Committee of the ABA’s Dispute Resolution Section. Over the last two…

Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Proceedings, Europe, Jurisdiction

(von Segesser Law Offices)/ /Leave a comment

In a recent decision of 22 January 2009 (4A_424/2008), the Swiss Federal Supreme Court had to consider an appeal against a decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In the run-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, a qualifying competition was held for the women’s Olympic hockey tournament. The Spanish team won…

Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Commercial Arbitration, International Courts, Middle East

(White & Case LLP)/ /Leave a comment
White & Case

“…so many construction disputes are now heading towards arbitration” remarks the calling notice for the next Society of Construction Law-Gulf event in Dubai in April. Around the world, the economic downturn is producing very many financial disputes. The speculation is that with the global recession deepening, the number of arbitrations is set to spiral upwards….

Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Proceedings, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, Europe

(Baker & McKenzie)/ /Leave a comment
YIAG

A recent decision of the English High Court (F Ltd v M Ltd [2009] EWHC 275 (TCC)) confirms that the Court may intervene and allow successful challenge of an arbitral award in order to protect parties against the unfair conduct of an arbitration. However, the case also demonstrates that the applicable test (i.e. a serious…

Arbitrators, Europe, Legal Practice, Legislation, National Arbitration Laws

(Lévy Kaufmann-Kohler)/ /5 Comments
Herbert Smith Freehills

I. Introduction On 9 February 2009 the Swiss Federal Tribunal (FT) quashed a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) award (Case reference 4A_400/2008). Annulment of an award is a rare enough event to call attention in itself, though this case warrants further inspection. The issue is not the choice of the applicable law (Article 187…

Arbitration Proceedings, Europe

(von Segesser Law Offices)/ /Leave a comment

Article 186 of the Swiss Private International Law Act (“PIL Act”) provides as follows: “1. The arbitral tribunal shall decide on its own jurisdiction. 1bis. It shall decide on its jurisdiction notwithstanding an action on the same matter between the same parties already pending before a state court or another arbitral tribunal, unless there are…

Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Proceedings, North America

(The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty of Law and Department of International Relations)/ /Leave a comment
American Society of International Law (ASIL)

Two weeks ago, an LCIA tribunal issued its Award on Remedies in a dispute filed by the U.S. against Canada under the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA). This dispute is interesting in many respects. Most obviously, it is a state-to-state dispute adjudicated under the auspices of the LCIA, more commonly used for commercial arbitration. This…

Arbitration Awards, Commercial Arbitration, North America

(Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /Leave a comment
WilmerHale

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Hall Street Associates, L.L.C. v. Mattel, Inc., 128 S. Ct. 1369 (2008) has provoked substantial commentary – as with many Supreme Court decisions regarding arbitration. The Hall Street decision held that the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) did not permit parties contractually to expand the grounds for vacating or…

Arbitrators, Domestic Courts, Europe

(Stylopoulos & Associates)/ /Leave a comment

The mechanism for referring questions regarding a preliminary ruling allows the national judge to ask the ECJ for a clarification on a point of EC law. Art 234 EC Treaty, governing preliminary rulings before the ECJ, applies to national courts or tribunals ruling as courts of final appeal and it does not open up directly…

Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Europe, New York Convention, North America

(Notre Dame Law School)/ /Leave a comment

Last week I attended a wonderful conference at Pepperdine Law School on international sports arbitrations administered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). It is a remarkably sophisticated regime that deserves far greater attention than it typically receives by the international arbitration community. Under the CAS Rules, all CAS tribunals have their seat in…

Europe, Investment Arbitration

(Investment Arbitration Reporter)/ /1 Comment

This week, many are talking about the long-awaited European Court of Justice judgments which have held Sweden and Austria in breach of their European Community Law obligations. (A third case against Finland has been delayed slightly, but will likely be resolved in the same way by the ECJ). According to the ECJ, Austria and Sweden…

Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Arbitrators, Enforcement, Investment Arbitration, South America

(International Council for Commercial Arbitration)/ /2 Comments
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

In light of interest in the international arbitration community concerning investment treaty cases against Argentina since the 2001 economic crisis, we thought it could be useful to share Freshfields’ working collation. We caution that this is based only on public records and press reports. Corrections are welcome. According to our data, 46 treaty cases have…

Commercial Arbitration, North America

(Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /1 Comment
WilmerHale

Just over one week ago, two pieces of anti-arbitration legislation – the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009 (H. R. 1020) and the Consumer Fairness Act of 2009 (H. R. 991) – were formally introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. Both acts would limit the ability to arbitrate consumer disputes, and the Arbitration Fairness Act…

Arbitration Proceedings, Enforcement, Europe

(von Segesser Law Offices)/ /Leave a comment

In its decision of 9 December 2008 (4A_403/2008), the Swiss Federal Supreme Court took the opportunity to clarify its practice regarding the enforcement of arbitral awards that are suspended at the foreign seat of arbitration. In the case before the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, Company Y requested recognition in Switzerland of an arbitral award rendered…