Jurisdiction

Applicable Law, Arbitration Agreement, Conflict of Laws, France, French Law, International arbitration, Non-signatory, Third Party

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Almost a decade after the Dallah saga, the French and English courts are once again considering the enforcement of the same award yet reaching conflicting solutions. On 29 March 2019, the High Court of England and Wales, followed on 20 January 2020 by the England and Wales Court of Appeal both refused to enforce an…

Arbitration, Data Protection, Disclosure, Egypt

(School of Law, Christ University)/ /Leave a comment

Egypt recently set out a legal framework for the protection and regulation of personal data. The legislation was brought about to regulate the protection of personal data which is stored and processed electronically. However, the law is silent on its application to arbitration and arbitral proceedings. The intersection between arbitration and data protection is not…

Costs in arbitral proceedings, Interest, KCAB, Korea, SIAC, Singapore

(Peter & Kim) and / /Leave a comment

The allocation of pre-award interest is a standard feature of most international arbitration proceedings and is often contested before a tribunal. The complexity is accentuated when a tribunal is unable to render a timely award for procedural reasons beyond its own control and beyond the parties’ control. The delay caused by the rescheduling of evidentiary…

foreign direct investment, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Treaties, Japan, VCLT, WTO

(Nagoya University)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

The years since 2017 have witnessed a global trend of tightening foreign direct investment (FDI) screening processes. Major economies, including the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the European Union have moved towards stricter FDI rules. In all of these cases, security concerns and, in particular, the need to protect cutting-edge technologies against…

Annulment, Enforcement, Indonesia, Interim measures, New York Convention, New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, UNCITRAL Model Law

(Asian International Arbitration Centre) and (KarimSyah Law Firm)/ /Leave a comment
Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC)

12th August 2020 marks the 21st anniversary of the Indonesia’s Law Number 30 Year 1999 on Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution (“Arbitration Law”).1)Any comments/views expressed in this article are those of the authors only. They do not reflect the views of KarimSyah Law Firm or AIAC unless otherwise stated. Culture wise, many countries, especially Indonesia, venerate…

Africa, Arbitration, Impartiality, Independence, International arbitration, Kenya, Laos, Seat of the arbitration

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The biennial 2020 Arbitration in Africa Survey Report (2020 Survey), which is the second in the series, is focused on top African arbitral centres and seats. It identifies the top and busiest arbitral centres in Africa. The survey was commissioned by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and sponsored by the law firm…

International arbitration, Swiss Private International Law Act, Switzerland

(Schellenberg Wittmer Ltd)/ /Leave a comment

The revision process of Chapter 12 of the Swiss Private International Law Act (PILA), governing international arbitration in Switzerland, was initiated in 2008 through a parliamentary motion. It led to a general mandate for the Swiss government to “touch up” Swiss international arbitration law with a view to aligning the statutory text with Swiss case…

Annulment, Finality, Procedural Error, Procedural Order, Sweden

(University of Aberdeen)/ /Leave a comment

In a recent judgement, the Swedish Supreme Court rejected an appeal against the decision of the first instance which set aside an arbitral award in part due to a procedural error of the arbitral tribunal. The particularity of this case stems from the fact that the procedural error derived from an earlier procedural order of…

Company Law, Corporate disputes, Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, Shareholder Resolutions, Shareholders Arbitration, Swiss Civil Procedure Code, Swiss Private International Law Act, Switzerland

(Homburger)/ /Leave a comment

One of the spillovers from arbitration’s popularity for the resolution of commercial disputes has been a steady increase in the use of arbitration provisions in corporate governance documents such as articles of association (“AoA”) or bylaws. Global public companies such as Royal Dutch Shell plc, Kone Oyj or Petrobras SA are prominent examples of this…

CAFTA, Damages, Guatemala, Latin America, Recidivism

(Eversheds Sutherland) and (Legalsa)/ /Leave a comment

US energy company TECO Guatemala Holdings, LLC (“TECO”) was awarded additional damages in a resubmitted ICSID claim against the Republic of Guatemala under the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (“DR-CAFTA”).1) TECO Guatemala Holdings, LLC v. Republic of Guatemala (ICSID Case No. ARB/10/23), Award, 13 May 2020. On 13 May 2020, the resubmission Tribunal…

Arbitration institution, Innovation, Legitimacy, Peru, Transparency

, (National and International Arbitration Center of the Lima Chamber of Commerce)/ /Leave a comment

In the last decades, Peru has been recognized to be a solid, convenient and leading choice as a seat for arbitrations in the Latin American region. Peru is party to the New York Convention and the ICSID Convention, as well as to several Bilateral Investment Treaties that provide for international arbitration as the applicable dispute…

Arbitration, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, International arbitration, South Africa

, (Clyde & Co LLP)/ /Leave a comment

International arbitration is on the rise in South Africa.  This is partly a result of the country’s new arbitration law, which was passed in 2017, but now the process has been given a further boost by the publication by the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA) of its draft International Arbitration Rules (the Draft Rules),…

China, Hong Kong, Interim measures, interim relief, Legislation, PRC

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HK45

On 1 October 2019, the Arrangement Concerning Mutual Assistance in Court-ordered Interim Measures in Aid of Arbitral Proceedings by the Courts of the Mainland of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the “Arrangement”) came into force. It was previously reported on the blog here and here. On 8 October 2019, the first interim measure under…

Arbitral Tribunal, Commercial Arbitration, EU Law, Poland, Public Policy, State Aid

(Queritius)/ /Leave a comment

In its judgment of 26 November 2019 (I ACa 457/18), the Warsaw Court of Appeal gave its view on the duties of arbitrators and counsel in cases involving state aid. In a well-argued decision, the Court reversed the decision of the lower court and annulled an award rendered by a prominent international tribunal on the…

China, Court Assistance, Judicial intervention, judicial review, PRC

(Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution) and (China Arbitration Institute of China University of Political Science and Law)/ /Leave a comment

In March 2020, the official Beijing judiciary website published the ground-breaking Big Data Research Report on Cases of the Beijing Fourth Intermediate People’s Court Involving Judicial Review of Arbitration (北京市第四中级人民法院仲裁司法审查案件大数据研究报告) (the “Report”). Prepared by the China Arbitration Institute of China University of Political Science and Law (中国政法大学仲裁研究院), the Report covers 18 months of decisions involving “judicial review”…

Admissibility, Singapore, time-limits

(Singapore Attorney-General’s Chambers)/ /Leave a comment

In BBA and others v BAZ and another appeal [2020] SGCA 53, the Singapore Court of Appeal (“SGCA”), in refusing to set aside an arbitral award, held that issues of time bar which arise from the expiry of statutory limitation periods go towards admissibility and not jurisdiction. Such issues cannot therefore be reviewed de novo…

Access to Justice, Jurisdiction, Russia, Sanctions

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On 19 June 2020, the new sanctions-related amendments1)Federal Law No. 171-FZ dated 8 June 2020, introducing the amendments (text in Russian). to the Russian Commercial (Arbitrazh) Procedure Code entered into force. The main objective of the law is to protect the interests of Russian natural and legal persons who are unable to effectively resolve their…

Arbitration Act, New York Convention, Recognition and enforcement of arbitral award, Tonga

, , (Clifford Chance Asia)/ /Leave a comment

On 12 June 2020, the Kingdom of Tonga (“Tonga“) acceded to the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958 (the “Convention“), being the 164th state party to do so. In the context of the Pacific region, Tonga is the 6th state to accede to the Convention after the Marshall…

ICSID Convention, India, ISDS Reform

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The relationship between developing countries and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has not been smooth, to say the least. Several developing countries such as Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador have pulled out from the ICSID Convention. India is one of the prominent developing countries that has refrained from joining the ICSID Convention,…

Ad hoc arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, China

(Zhong Lun Law Firm)/ /1 Comment

It is undisputed that the Arbitration Law of the People’s Republic of China (“the Arbitration Law”) has greatly contributed to the establishment, development and improvement of China’s current arbitration system. However, due to the fast-moving socio-economic realities and the ever-developing legal system of China, the provisions of the Arbitration Law have gradually begun to lag…

Access to Justice, Jurisdiction, Russia, Sanctions

(Kulkov, Kolotilov and Partners)/ /Leave a comment

As a result of coronavirus, sanctions, for once, have not been grabbing the headlines. Unlike the media, the Russian legislative bodies have recently shown keen interest in the topic of sanctions as they have adopted a draft law from last year granting persons and companies affected by the sanctions against Russia with a right to…

kompetenz-kompetenz, United States, United States Courts

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Young ITA

Awards are final—mostly. Many institutional rules allow arbitrators to correct clerical errors in their awards, but prohibit revisions to the merits of their decisions. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit signaled in a recent case that it will defer to arbitrators in interpreting institutional rules regarding the scope of their correction authority,…

Enforcement, Foreign arbitral awards, India, Limitation period

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Indian courts have pronounced inconsistent decisions regarding the limitation period on applications for enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. This blog post discusses the conflicting jurisprudence and advocates adoption of purposive interpretation for its redressal. Sections 47 to 49 of the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 (“the Act”), which forms part of the chapter on…

Announcement, Colombia, Due process, Latin America, New York Convention

(Universidad del Norte) and (Refinería de Cartagena S.A.S.)/ /Leave a comment

On February 27, 2020, the Third Division of the Colombian Council of State (“Court”) issued a judgment resolving an annulment petition submitted by a state-owned company’s subsidiary against an international arbitral award. In its judgment, the Court decided to annul the award due to the Tribunal’s failure to comply with the agreed arbitral procedure. In…