Jurisdiction

Arbitration, IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest, Nigeria, Set aside an arbitral award

(AELEX)/ /2 Comments

The ruling given on 25 February 2020 (‘Ruling’) by the High Court of Lagos State in Nigeria (‘Lagos High Court’), setting aside an award in the case of Global Gas and Refinery Limited (‘Global Gas’) and Shell Petroleum Development Company (‘Shell’) on the ground of arbitrator non-disclosure, raises concern to the arbitral community both in…

Arbitration, Dispute, Dispute Resolution, Dispute Settlement, ICSID, Investment Arbitration, Norway

(Bottega Di Bella)/ /Leave a comment

Recently, the first-ever treaty-based arbitration against Norway was registered with ICSID. The Request for Arbitration was submitted by a Latvian investor, Mr. Peteris Pildegovics, and his company, SIA North Star. This post provides a background to the dispute, outlines possible claims, elaborates on its ramifications, and predicts further arbitrations. The dispute at hand is similar…

Austria, Deliberations, Enforcement, Ordre Public, Supreme Court

(Bitterl König Attorneys-at-Law)/ /2 Comments

In a recent decision of November 2019 the Austrian Supreme Court (“OGH” in German) considered whether an arbitral award rendered by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Belarus shall be declared enforceable and emphasized the importance of deliberations in the context of the ordre public standard to reach an enforceable award. In a nutshell,…

Courts, India, Seat of the arbitration, Venue

(JSA, Advocates & Solicitors) and (AnchayilKumar)/ /Leave a comment
YIAG

This blog has previously discussed the issue of jurisdiction of Indian courts over foreign-seated arbitrations and the issue of Indian parties choosing a foreign seat of arbitration. However, a more fundamental issue concerns the interpretation of arbitration agreements to determine the choice of seat. Since September 2018, the Supreme Court of India (“Supreme Court”) has…

Belt Road Initiative, China, currency, Financial Industry

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China’s Belt and Road Initiative (“BRI”) is well known as the largest infrastructure construction program in world history.1)This post is expressed as Michael J. Bond’s personal opinion and does not represent the views of any organization or party. President Xi Jinping announced its two components in 2013; one is a land-based Silk Road Economic Belt…

Arbitrability, Brazil, Intellectual Property, Patents, Trademarks

(Salusse, Marangoni, Parente e Jabur Advogados)/ /1 Comment

International background on IP arbitration The past decade has witnessed a substantial growth in the use of arbitration to solve Intellectual Property (“IP”) disputes. To the day, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center (“WIPO Center”) has administered over 650 arbitration, mediation and expert determination cases, a number which grows faster every year, as portrayed by…

Construction arbitration, Corruption, Latin America, Res Judicata, Standard of Proof, Third Party

, (Philippi Prietocarrizosa Ferrero DU & Uría)/ /Leave a comment

The Ruta del Sol arbitral award was one of the most important awards in 2019 in Colombia and possibly in the entire region. The arbitral tribunal sitting to resolve the Ruta del Sol arbitral proceeding (the “Tribunal”) determined the consequences of securing an infrastructure concession contract in Colombia through corrupt practices and served as pioneers…

Africa, Arbitration, Virtual hearings

(Africa Arbitration Academy ) and (Zulficar & Partners)/ /1 Comment

Necessity is the golden chord that lies at the base of every innovation and invention. As countries around the world continue to implement different measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and to contain and deal with its ramifications, all stakeholders (including businesses and institutions) are now forced to innovate and make significant changes to the…

Australia, Disclosure, Discovery, Pre-Action Disclosure, Pre-arbitral procedure, Preliminary Discovery

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Herbert Smith Freehills

The availability and scope of ‘discovery’ or document production significantly differs across jurisdictions, most notably when comparing litigation in common law and civil law courts. In the field of international arbitration, the compromise position adopted by the International Bar Association’s Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration is to permit disclosure of documents…

Anti-corruption, Arbitration, Corruption, ISDS, Peru, Protectionism, Transparency

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On January 24, 2020, Peru enacted the Emergency Decree No. 020-2020 (the “Decree”), published in Peru’s Official Gazette, El Peruano.1)Emergency Decree Modifying Legislative Decree Nº 1071, Legislative Decree Norming Arbitration, Emergency Decree No. 20-2020 (Jan. 24, 2020) (Peru). The Decree amends Peru’s Legislative Decree No. 1071 (the “Arbitration Law”), in force since 2008,2)Legislative Decree Regulating…

Africa, New York Convention, New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, Reciprocity, Recognition and enforcement of arbitral award, Republic of Seychelles, Switzerland

(Taylor Wessing) and (University of Konstanz, Germany)/ /Leave a comment
YIAG

On 3 February 2020, the Republic of Seychelles became the 162nd Contracting State of the New York Convention (already followed by Palau as number 163, reported here). The New York Convention thus comes into force for the Seychelles today (Article XII(2) New York Convention). The Cabinet and the National Assembly had approved the accession on…

Arbitration Agreement, Arbitration clause, Czech Republic, New York Convention

(Bříza & Trubač)/ /Leave a comment

The 1958 New York Convention (“NY Convention” or “Convention”) was adopted in the era when probably the fastest form of communication in which an arbitration agreement could have been concluded was via telegrams. The Convention requires written form for an arbitration agreement (clause) to be valid, but the electronic communication of our times had not…

Full Protection and Security, Gunboat Diplomacy, Libya, Turkey

(Durham Law School) and (DER Juridik)/ /1 Comment

A widespread debate on the legitimacy of (and backlash against) investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) has been on-going for several years now. Put colloquially, this debate asks essentially whether ISDS in its current form is capable of handling international investment disputes, generally, and such disputes that implicate a public interest element, in particular. Moreover, it…

Achmea, Enforcement, English courts, EU Withdrawal Act, Intra-EU BITs, Intra-EU ISDS, Investment Arbitration, UK, UK Supreme Court

(E&A Law Limited)/ /1 Comment

In its unanimous decision in the Micula case the UK Supreme Court on 19 February 2020 made clear that ICSID arbitral awards rendered by tribunals established pursuant to intra-EU BITs could be enforced in the UK. As explained by Guillaume Croisant in his blog post on 20 February, the UK Supreme Court overruled the Court…

Association Agreement, European Union, International arbitration, Protectionism, Ukraine

(Vasil Kisil and Partners)/ /Leave a comment

On 28 January 2020, the arbitration panel has been formed in the dispute between the EU and Ukraine regarding Ukraine’s export prohibition of unprocessed timber. Notably, this is the first dispute between the EU and Ukraine under the Association Agreement (“EU-Ukraine AA”), and here, the EU invokes the dispute settlement mechanism provided by the free-trade…

Discovery, Section 1782 Discovery, United States

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Three Crowns LLP

A California district court held in February that 28 U.S.C. Section 1782 could be used to seek discovery for use in a private, commercial arbitration, becoming the first district court in the Ninth Circuit to do so, and, following recent decisions in the Sixth and Fourth Circuits, potentially teeing up an even more pronounced split…

European Court of Human Rights, Independence and Impartiality, Sport arbitration, Turkey

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The findings of the recent decision Ali Riza et al. v. Turkey (“Riza“) of the European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR“) dated 28 January 2020, when read in conjunction with the ECtHR’s previous decision Mutu and Pechstein v. Switzerland (“Mutu-Pechstein“) dated 2 October 2018 (which concluded the “Pechstein Saga”), could potentially have an impact on…

Corruption, Document Production, France, French Supreme Court, Independence and Impartiality, International arbitration, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, Paris Court of Appeal, Set aside an arbitral award, State Immunity

(Terrien Avocat)/ /Leave a comment

Although some might have considered 2019 a bit “lackluster”,1)Th. Clay, Panorama – Arbitrage et modes alternatifs de règlement des litiges: novembre 2018-décembre 2019, Dalloz, 26 December 2019. a number of noteworthy decisions by the Paris Court of Appeal and French Supreme Court have come to refine on the now well-established French case law on international…

Enforceability, Public Policy, Russia, Sanctions, Ukraine

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

We live in time when sanctions hit the headlines almost every quarter. Naturally, this frustrates contracts and creates additional causes for disputes. However, there exists uncertainty as to whether sanctions also render awards unenforceable on the grounds of public policy. As will be shown in this post, even within the supreme court of one country…

Arbitration, Artificial Intelligence, France, Online Arbitration, Online Dispute Resolution

(CastaldiPartners)/ /Leave a comment

The Report on Online Dispute Resolution platform for consumers issued by the European Commission on 2 October 2019 concludes that “the ODR framework is underused and has yet to reach its full potential”. Against this background, the French legislator has taken a strong stance to promote the use of artificial intelligence and online dispute resolution,…

ADR, Brazil, COVID-19, Greece, Kluwer Mediation Blog, Mediation, Singapore, Singapore Mediation Convention, Uzbekistan

(Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London)/ /Leave a comment

“I prefer to hope that this shift in perspective will be a chance for people, organisations, businesses, politics, whatever, to put so many of their ongoing disputes and conflicts aside because with this new perspective comes the realisation that these are not worth fighting. It is time to cooperate. May we go through and come…

Arbitration institution, CAM Santiago, Chile, COVID-19, Interviews with Our Editors, Latin America

(Locke Lord LLP) and (Herbert Smith Freehills)/ /Leave a comment

Welcome to the Kluwer Arbitration Blog, Ms. Letelier!  We are grateful for this opportunity to learn more about the Center for Arbitration and Mediation of Santiago (“CAM Santiago” for its initials in Spanish), and its administration of complex disputes, as well as about the attractiveness of Santiago as seat for international arbitration.    To start,…

Expropriation, Investment Arbitration, Investor-State arbitration, Minimum Standard of Treatment, Most Favoured Nation (MFN), National Treatment, Non-Disputing NAFTA Parties, Non-Disputing Parties, United States

(US Department of State)/ /Leave a comment

In 2019, the United States (‘U.S.’) made six non-disputing Party submissions in investment treaty arbitrations, three of which took place under the NAFTA (Lion Mexico Consol. L.P. v. Mexico; Vento Motorcycles, Inc. v. Mexico; and Tennant Energy, LLC v. Canada), and one each of which took place under U.S. agreements with Korea, Peru and Panama (Jin Hae…

ADR, Arbitration Industry, Arbitration institution, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Belt Road Initiative, Case Management, China, CIETAC, Conciliation, Domain Names, Hong Kong, Interim measures, Interviews with Our Editors, Jurisdictional challenge, Macau, Mediation, Taiwan, Tribunal Secretary

(Peter & Kim)/ /Leave a comment
CIETAC Hong Kong Arbitration Center

Dr. Li Hu is Deputy Secretary-General of China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (“CIETAC”), Vice Chairman of China Maritime Arbitration Commission, and also Board Member of the Arbitration Institute of Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. He has authored several publications on dispute resolution in China and has served as arbitrator in over 120 domestic and…