Jurisdiction

Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Belgium, Jurisdiction, Law governing the arbitration agreement

(DMDB Law)/ /1 Comment

A judgment of the European Court of 17 October 2013 (C-184/12) honors gold plated provisions when considered mandatory. Member state courts are allowed to consider their national gold-plating (the practice of implementing rules tougher than the minimum required by the EU) as being of overriding mandatory character. Arbitration clause In 2005, Unamar, a Belgian commercial…

Injunction, Jurisdiction, Nigeria

(Aluko & Oyebode)/ /Leave a comment

and Afolabi Euba and Hamid Abdulkareem, Aluko & Oyebode, Lagos, Nigeria In the course of 2012, a number of injunctions have been issued by Nigerian courts to stop arbitrations commenced by international oil companies against the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). One of such orders was made ex parte by the Nigerian Federal High Court…

Arbitration Agreements, Jurisdiction, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, Mauritius

(LCIA-MIAC Arbitration Centre)/ /Leave a comment

In a recent decision, the Mauritian Supreme Court has roundly rejected a challenge to an arbitrator’s jurisdiction brought under section 20 of the Mauritian International Arbitration Act 2008, and in doing so touched upon the interesting question of the standard of review in such cases. Section 20 of the International Arbitration Act 2008 (“IAA”) allows…

Domestic law, Enforcement, International arbitration, Jurisdiction, kompetenz-kompetenz, New York Convention

(Leaua & Asociatii)/ /3 Comments

By Crenguta Leaua and Stefan Dudas (Leaua & Asociatii) A new Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) including two separate sections on domestic and international arbitration entered into force in Romania on 15th of February. With this step, Romanian law continues to differentiate between domestic and international arbitration and to allow for a flexible regime for…

BIT, ICSID Convention, International Law, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Jurisdiction, Treaty Shopping

(International Moot Court Competition Association (IMCCA))/ /1 Comment

Akbar the Great once drew with his royal hand a line in the sand. He then told his wise men that if they wanted to keep their jobs, they must invent a way to make the line shorter without touching any part of it. Wise man after wise man approached the line and stood in…

Enforcement, EU Regulation 44/ 2001, Europe, European Law, Jurisdiction

(Colibra Insurance)/ /Leave a comment

In Part I of my post, the revised “Brussels I” Regulation (Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters) was discussed in the light of a hypothetical example from international trade and arbitration. This Part 2 strives to outline the…

Enforcement, EU Regulation 44/ 2001, Europe, European Law, Jurisdiction

(Colibra Insurance)/ /Leave a comment

Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 (published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 20 December 2012) implements a new, recast version of the Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in…

Insolvency, Jurisdiction, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, Law governing the arbitration, Switzerland

(Schellenberg Wittmer Ltd, Switzerland)/ /1 Comment
Schellenberg Wittmer

Nathalie Voser and Anya George Few Swiss cases have sparked as much debate in the arbitration community as the Swiss Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in Vivendi vs. Elektrim. In that decision, the Supreme Court upheld the award of an arbitral tribunal seated in Switzerland which had declined jurisdiction over one of the respondents, Elektrim, after…

Asia-Pacific, Enforcement, Hong Kong, Jurisdiction, New York Convention, Singapore International Arbitration Centre

(Norton Rose Fulbright)/ /2 Comments
YSIAC

In Astro Nusantara International BV v PT Ayunda Prima Mitra [2012] SGHC 212, the Singapore High Court set out the available recourse against an international arbitration award made in Singapore. This case has significant implications for Singapore as a seat of arbitration, and this note contrasts the position between Singapore and Hong Kong against the…

Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Domestic Courts, Jurisdiction, Switzerland

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

In a recently published decision dated 6 August 2012 (4A_119/2012), the Swiss Federal Supreme Court confirmed its own jurisprudence according to which state courts facing a jurisdictional defense based on an alleged arbitration agreement must not assess in full the validity of the arbitration agreement. In such cases, the state court must limit itself to a summary examination of whether or not a valid arbitration agreement exists.

Jurisdiction, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, Latin America, Provisional measures

(Clyde & Co. LLP)/ /1 Comment
Clyde & Co.

A recent decision of the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice (“STJ”) has ruled, for the first time, on the issue of the concurrent jurisdiction of national courts and arbitral tribunals with respect to the making of interim measures (Itarumã Participações S.A. v Participações em Complexos Bioenergéticos S.A. – PCBIOS, Resp no. 1,297,974-RJ). The decision is…

Arbitration Awards, Arbitrators, BIT, Costs in arbitral proceedings, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Jurisdiction

(International Moot Court Competition Association (IMCCA))/ /15 Comments

“Research is formalized curiosity…” – Z. Hurston In what follows I have tried to gather information from publicly available sources regarding some of the questions which have troubled my mind lately. It is hoped that the results would be of interest to the readers. For me, this proved to be one of my most exciting…

Enforcement of an arbitration clause, English Law, Jurisdiction, New York Convention

(Linklaters)/ /1 Comment

A recent Australian case has resulted in a ruling that arbitration clauses, jurisdiction clauses and choice of law clauses in charter parties involving shipments to or from Australia are now unenforceable if such clauses seek to limit the jurisdiction of any Australian court. On 6 October 2009 the Claimant ship owner, Dampskibsselskabet Norden A/S (“DKN”),…

European Law, Investment Arbitration, Jurisdiction, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal

(Linklaters)/ /1 Comment

Investment arbitration under intra-EU investment treaties has been a controversial topic for years. The European Commission has repeatedly expressed the view that arbitration clauses in bilateral investment treaties between EU Member States are in conflict with EU law and therefore inoperative, while arbitral tribunals have, on several occasions, assumed jurisdiction on the basis of such…

Enforcement, Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), Jurisdiction, New York Convention, North America

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The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently issued a decision that has some interesting implications for the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in the U.S. against foreign state agencies or state-owned companies. American readers, get ready for a review of Civil Procedure 101 on personal jurisdiction! The United States…

Arbitration clause, Damages, Europe, Jurisdiction

(Linklaters)/ /Leave a comment

This post follows on from the highly informative Kluwer Arbitration Blog post by Elizabeth Kantor, “The ‘West Tankers’ Saga Continues: Can Damages Compensate for Breach of an Arbitration Clause?” Whilst that focussed principally on the implications for, and efficacy of, the type of award in issue the purpose this post is, in contrast, to look…

Arbitration clause, Damages, Europe, Jurisdiction

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

In the most recent of a long-running series of decisions in the West Tankers saga, the English court has found that the majority of the tribunal was wrong to decline jurisdiction to award equitable damages or to declare a party liable to indemnify the other as a result of the breach of an arbitration clause….

Arbitration Agreements, Canada, Jurisdiction

(Caribbean Arbitrators, Arbitration Place, 33 Bedford Row Chambers)/ /1 Comment

Canada’s highest court, the Supreme Court of Canada, recently considered whether a party had waived its right to rely on arbitration and forum selection clauses by submitting a statement of defence on the merits in an Ontario court litigation in which it also pleaded the clauses. The Court ruled that there had been no waiver….

Arbitration, Competition Law, Enforcement of an arbitration clause, Jurisdiction, Public Policy

(Baker & McKenzie)/ /1 Comment
YIAG

A commentary on the OECD Competition Commission conclusions on using arbitration to effectively resolve competition law disputes By Francesca Richmond and Sarah West There has been increasing use of arbitration to resolve disputes involving competition law issues in recent years. However, it is surprising that the number is not even greater given that arbitral processes…

BIT, Jurisdiction, Russia

(Khrenov & Partners)/ /Leave a comment

Over the past few months, Russia’s outgoing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been busy campaigning for foreign investment into various industries of the Russian economy. In a nutshell, the thinking behind the new plan for improving the investment climate in Russia is that easing access to strategic industries for foreign investors will do the trick….

Anti-suit injunction, Arbitral seat, Domestic Courts, EU Regulation 44/ 2001, European Union, Jurisdiction, Lis Pendens, New York Convention, Parallel Proceedings

(Loyola University Chicago School of Law)/ /1 Comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

One purpose for anti-suit injunctions is to stop parallel proceedings, that is, to stop parties from pursuing litigation or arbitration involving the same parties and the same claims in two different jurisdictions simultaneously. To stop parallel proceedings in arbitration, a party will go to the court at the seat of the arbitration and will ask…

Arbitration, Canada, Enforcement, ICSID Convention, International arbitration, Investment Arbitration, Jurisdiction, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, NAFTA

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

As we approach the first anniversary of the UK Supreme Court’s landmark decision in the case of Dallah Estate and Tourism Holding Company v The Ministry of Religious Affairs, Government of Pakistan, it is only fitting that we would encounter a case which would cause us to revisit the issue of the proper standard of…

English Law, Jurisdiction, kompetenz-kompetenz

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

Adjudicating contract disputes where it is alleged that the contract has been tainted by bribery, either in its procurement or in its performance, presents difficult issues for arbitrators, as well as for counsel. While the arbitrability of disputes involving allegations of bribery is generally no longer in doubt, a tribunal will still confront a number…

Applicable Law, Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Arbitration Quiz, Arbitrators, Costs in arbitral proceedings, Expedited arbitration, Joinder, Jurisdiction, Mediation

(MDisputes)/ /Leave a comment

Last week’s summer quiz on international arbitration and mediation provoked a happy flurry of answers from around the world from a broad range of practitioners. Before we get to the answers, here are some interesting observations from the empirical data that we unintentionally gathered. Conclusive Empirical Data about International Arbitration and Mediation Practitioners (“Practitioners”) As…