The 2024 London International Disputes Week (“LIDW”) was stage to several discussions regarding mass litigations. This was definitely not by chance. Europe has been seeing an exponential rise in mass litigation, particularly in the last twenty years, where aspects arising from environmental, social and governance issues have started to become a trend worldwide. This post…
As part of the 2024 London International Disputes Week (“LIDW”), Kirkland & Ellis hosted an event titled “Panel Session on Sanctioned Countries”. The panel, comprised of Anna Bradshaw (Peters & Peters), James Freeman (A&O Shearman), Maya Lester KC (Brick Court Chambers), David Lorello (Covington & Burlington), Jon Newman (Kirkland & Ellis), and Dara Shagal (Pinna…
London International Dispute Week (“LIDW”) 2024 kicked off with more than 700 people attending events starting with a thought-provoking keynote speech by Jan Paulsson – President of the, Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (“SCCA”) Court – on the topic “International Arbitration in the Year 2050: Shipwrecked or Basking on the Shores of the Promised Land?”,…
For decades, Pakistan’s arbitration framework has faced criticism for its inconsistency and inefficiency, contributing to the country’s staggering backlog of over 2.26 million cases in the courts. This backlog includes cases affected by an ineffective arbitration regime that encourages arbitral matters to be taken to courts as a result of their extensive interventionist powers pursuant…
In recent years, the electronic signature of awards has become widely accepted under various laws and institutional rules, particularly as a result of the increased reliance on the virtual world caused by the pandemic. As discussed in a previous blog post, while some jurisdictions still require awards to be signed by wet ink signatures, many…
Can the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) be applicable to arbitration agreements? The literature has been divided on this matter, with several discernible approaches. This post explores the topic of applicability of the CISG to arbitration agreements from the perspective of the now (in)famous Enka v. Chubb case,…
On March 11, 2024, an ICSID arbitral tribunal (Juan Fernández-Armesto (President), Wendy Miles, Alexis Mourre), rendered an award in Encavis AG and Others v. Italy. The controversy follows some other 14 disputes initiated by EU investors against the Italian State under the Energy Charter Treaty (“ECT”) (some of these discussed here) and falls into the…
Although parts of CETA have been provisionally applied since 21 September 2017, the parts not subject to provisional application – including the investment chapter (CETA’s Chapter Eight) which covers investment protection and dispute resolution – are still pending domestic ratification procedures in 10 EU Member States. In parallel, CETA’s framework for investment protection and dispute…
In April 2023, the Chief Justice of Pakistan directed the formation of an Arbitration Law Review Committee (“ALRC”) to carry out a review of arbitration laws in Pakistan and propose reforms. The ALRC, which was formed under the aegis of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, was also directed to prepare legislation that would…
Several recent developments across the EU portend increased availability of third-party funding by parties to EU-seated arbitral proceedings, albeit within a context of regulation of that funding beyond the self-regulatory approach of funder codes of conduct or the rules of funder organizations. Legalisation of Third-Party Funding of International Arbitration in Ireland Ireland, the only…
On 5 March 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR” or “the Court”) delivered its judgment in Iliria S.R.L. v. Albania (“Iliria”), a case concerning a complaint under Article 6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR” or “the Convention”) relating to a more than 17-year delay in the conclusion of recognition (exequatur) proceedings…
Despite many years of hard and tireless work for the purposes of ADR promotion in Georgia, the recent attitude of the courts towards arbitration causes significant problems at the level of basic concepts and principles. To demonstrate this, it is enough to take a look at two high-profile 2023 decisions of the Tbilisi Court of…
There has been a lot of talk about artificial intelligence (“AI”) in international arbitration in recent years. I vividly remember when I gave the keynote speech on “International Arbitration 3.0 – How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Dispute Resolution” at the Vienna Arbitration Days 2018. At the time, people were quite skeptical about the topic, but…
On 25 April 2024, the European Federation for Investment Law and Arbitration (“EFILA”) held its 9th Annual Conference at Clifford Chance in Frankfurt. The conference was opened by the Chair of the Executive Board of EFILA, Mirjam van de Hel (NautaDutilh) who underscored the importance of discussing the impact of geopolitical uncertainties on international arbitration…
On February 28, 2024, the arbitral tribunal in the arbitration between Red Eagle Exploration Limited (“Red Eagle”) and Colombia (ICSID Case No. ARB/18/13) issued an award under the Canada-Colombia FTA (2008)) (“FTA”). In this post, we discuss the background to this decision as well as the tribunal’s ruling regarding the merits (minimum standard of treatment…
On March 11, 2024, in Swinerton Builders, Inc. v. Argonaut Insurance Company, a district court in the Ninth Circuit found a valid arbitration agreement between the contractor, Swinerton Builders, Inc. (“Swinerton”), and the non-signatory insurer, Argonaut Insurance Co. (“Argonaut”), of its subcontractor, Northern Services, Inc. (“Northern”). No. 23-CV-4158 (DMR), 2024 WL 1057473 (N.D. Cal. Mar….
Two recent judgments, one from the United States (US) District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (“Louisiana Court”) and another from the Singapore High Court (“Singapore Court”), have highlighted the difficulties that Decree No. 34/2021(Concerning the Dubai International Arbitration Centre) (“Decree No. 34/2021”) may cause to the enforceability of DIFC-LCIA arbitration clauses in arbitrations…
On 14 April 2024, the English Commercial Court granted Crescent Gas Corporation Limited (“CGC”) ownership of a London property to assist it (partially) to recover a USD 2.6 billion judgment debt owed by the National Iranian Oil Company (“NIOC”). This post explores the court’s decision and key takeaways for practitioners particularly regarding enforcement strategies. …
The Brussels first instance court attracted significant attention in 2022 by deciding to set aside an UNCITRAL award regarding a claim brought against the Republic of Poland under the US-Poland bilateral investment treaty (“US-Poland BIT”). This was the first time we had seen a Belgian court set aside an investment treaty award. The first instance…
As investors increasingly look to diversify their investments whilst seeking higher returns, and emerging nations continue the push to industrialise, to develop their infrastructure and to grow their economies, the emerging economies have become a hotbed of activity for investors, developers, and legal professionals around the world. This post considers why all eyes seem to…
On 21 February 2024, the District Court of Amsterdam (“the court”) rendered a decision in summary proceedings. The key question that arose from this decision was: Can parties facing an unclear arbitration agreement ask the national courts to resolve their disputes instead? The issue of ambiguity surrounding arbitration agreements is not a novel phenomenon (see,…
The analysis of the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht – the “Court”) dated 3 June 2022 (1 BvR 2103/16) in the Pechstein case (the “Pechstein Decision”, also covered in a previous post) shows constitutional limits to arbitration agreements that are externally determined, i.e., agreements whose content can be de facto determined unilaterally by…
Previous posts have addressed advocacy techniques in arbitration (for example, see here, here, here, here, and here). This is not an attempt to summarize them, but rather to present the topic in a different light. As psychologists have long discovered, information that provides imagery and vividness has a greater impact on inferences and memory retention….
The Delhi Arbitration Week (“DAW”) 2024 that took place from 6 to 10 March 2024 featured two panel discussions that focused on emerging issues such as state owned entities (“SOEs”) and the role of technology in arbitration. The panel discussions came into play at a time when there have been significant developments and challenges globally…
