In the past year, there has been a paradigm shift from a norm of in-person hearings to a norm of virtual hearings. As part of the 10th Hong Kong Arbitration Week, KCAB INTERNATIONAL and the Korean Council for International Arbitration (KOCIA) invited arbitration practitioners, mostly based in the dynamic Korean arbitration market, to share their…
Sarah has been HKIAC Secretary-General since September 2016. During her time at the helm, the HKIAC has, among other actions, released its 2018 Administered Arbitration Rules, overseen the changes arising from the 2019 arrangement between Mainland China and Hong Kong regarding interim measures for arbitration (“Interim Measures Arrangement”), became the first foreign arbitral institution to…
The proposed Article 91 in the Draft Amendment to PRC Arbitration Law (the “Draft Amendment”), which was issued by the PRC Ministry of Justice in July 2021, introduces ad hoc arbitration: “The parties to a commercial dispute involving foreign elements may agree on an institutional arbitration or directly agree that it shall be arbitrated by…
On 14 September 2021, a Decree (no. 34) by the government of Dubai (currently only available in Arabic) (the Decree) abolished two of Dubai’s most successful arbitration institutions: the Dubai Maritime Arbitration Centre (EMAC) and the DIFC-LCIA Centre.1)The DIFC-LCIA was established as a joint venture between Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Dubai Arbitration Institute (DAI),…
As part of Canadian Arbitration Week, the 2021 ICC Canada Conference, titled Leaning into the Future, was designed to facilitate critical thinking and debate on several important topics in international arbitration. The focus of the conference was decidedly post-pandemic, exploring fault lines and cleavages in the system of international arbitration as we know it today,…
Just about everyone in the legal profession has made a small mathematical error in front of others and quipped, “well, that’s why I went to law school”. Clients hire lawyers for our legal reasoning, not for our abilities in arithmetic. For this reason, supplementing skilled legal analysis with input from industry and quantum experts is…
Canadian Arbitration Week ran online from September 20 – 24, 2021 under the theme of adaptation and acceleration. A timely focus as the pandemic continues to accelerate sweeping changes in the legal world. The 2021 YCAP Fall Symposium titled “New World, New Rules” took place on September 23 and addressed the theme in a session…
If you are a party to a lease agreement or a grant of right to use commercial space in Macau, tax considerations may now be critical for determining whether “to arbitrate or not to arbitrate”. In fact, aside from the typical advantages of arbitration over litigation, tax reduction has now become an additional advantage for…
Swiss substantive law allows a debtor to pay a debt in the national currency of the place of payment even though the debt is actually owed in a foreign currency, except for cases where the contract expressly requires fulfillment of the debt in “actual currency” by using the term “actual” or words to that effect…
The 168 parties to the New York Convention, including Estonia, have made a promise to recognize and enforce foreign arbitral awards. One of the few grounds – and probably the most discussed one – to refuse the recognition and enforcement is, under Article V(2)(b) of the New York Convention, the contradiction to the public policy…
A significant number of disputes related to Intellectual Property Rights (“IPR”) that have been settled by arbitration are reflected in the 2011-2020 World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) Caseload Summary. The expansion of the notion of arbitrability to include IPR disputes in recent years illustrates the global trend toward arbitration of IPR disputes despite concerns over…
There is no statutory provision that covers derivative actions by shareholders in India. However, the chapter on Prevention of Oppression and Mismanagement in the Companies Act, 2013 (“the Companies Act”) comes the closest. While Indian courts have generally adopted a stance against the arbitrability of oppression and mismanagement matters (Rakesh Malhotra v. Rajinder Malhotra, Sporting…
On 15 September 2021, the Netherlands Arbitration Institute (NAI) and Young NAI organized a webinar that focused on the upcoming 2022 NAI Arbitration Rules and also covered other developments related to green arbitration, transparency, diversity and efficiency in international arbitration. Allen & Overy hosted the webinar, with Marieke van Hooijdonk opening the event. The…
Dr Minas Khatchadourian left this world for the heavenly abode in July 2021. This news was a great shock to the Middle Eastern legal community. In particular, his loss will be significantly felt in Egypt – his home country – and Qatar – where Dr Khatchadourian spent the last ten years as the General Legal…
Recently the Supreme Court of India in Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings Inc. v. Future Retail Ltd, (“Amazon v. Future”) took a progressive step by enforcing an emergency order/award rendered by an emergency arbitral tribunal appointed by Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”). The Court held that the term ‘arbitral tribunal’ contained in section 17 of the…
Earlier this year, Colombia prevailed in two arbitrations under the Colombia-US Trade Promotion Agreement (“TPA”). The claims were filed by Alberto Carrizosa Gelzis, Felipe Carrizosa Gelzis and Enrique Carrizosa Gelzis (“Carrizosa brothers”) under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, and by Astrida Benita Carrizosa (“Ms. Carrizosa”) under the ICSID Convention. In both arbitrations Ms. Carrizosa and the…
On 26 May 2021, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Moldova (the “Supreme Court”) decided that the procedure for execution of an enforcement title, after recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitral award, falls outside the scope of the New York Convention. Instead, it is subject to municipal law. Factual Background The request…
During the Paris Arbitration Week, HKIAC held a webinar on “Protecting your interest through interim relief from Mainland Chinese courts”, two years after the unprecedented Arrangement Concerning Mutual Assistance in Court-ordered Interim Measures in Aid of Arbitral Proceedings by the Courts of the Mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the Arrangement) came into…
When you think about the British Virgin Islands (BVI), you probably have a very good image of the sea, sand, beautiful views and maybe some very much needed vacation. There is however more to the BVI, particularly as relates to arbitration. It is possible that in the coming years, the BVI will be one of…
On 30 July 2021, the PRC Ministry of Justice issued the Amendment to the Arbitration Law (Consultation Draft) (the “Draft Amendment”), which is the first substantial amendment of the existing PRC Arbitration Law (the “Arbitration Law”) in more than two decades. (See previous posts on the PRC Arbitration Law here and here.) Of the changes…
On 6 January 2021, the Egyptian Government introduced a draft law for parliament’s approval, seeking to expand the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court’s (“ESCC”) jurisdiction to scrutinize international arbitration awards rendered against the Egyptian State and acts of international organizations affecting the Egyptian State. The legislative amendment is in line with previous legislative measures designed to…
Would you agree to arbitrate in a forum where the opposing party has the last word about the tribunal’s composition? This is what the new Hungarian Concession Arbitration Court, scheduled to start operation in October 2021, proposes. The Name of the Game The Hungarian government loves playing with arbitration. In 2012, they prohibited arbitration…
Proceedings for setting-aside arbitral awards in India have been the subject of controversy since time immemorial. Recent trends indicate that the tendency of courts to set-aside awards has been on the wane. However, on many occasions, courts have been sympathetic to the losing party on issues of quantum, costs and interest, and have undertaken a…
Multi-tiered dispute resolution clauses – which typically require negotiation, mediation, and/or other form(s) of alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) prior to submitting the dispute to binding arbitration – are ubiquitous, and a standard feature of complex construction contracts. Contrary to their intended function of promoting efficiency and preserving business relationships, as observed by Gary Born, they…
