Jurisdiction

Arbitration, Asia-Pacific, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic law, Hong Kong, Legislation, National Arbitration Laws, Pro arbitration

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

by Justin D’Agostino and Briana Young On 28 March 2013, Hong Kong gazetted The Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2013. The Bill proposes amendments to Hong Kong’s Arbitration Ordinance (Cap. 609) to implement an arrangement for mutual enforcement of awards between Hong Kong and Macao, allow for enforcement of emergency arbitrator decisions in Hong Kong, and provide…

Arbitration, Arbitration Awards, Arbitrators, Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), Uncategorized, United States

(Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /Leave a comment
WilmerHale

The U.S. Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) provides that a federal district court may vacate an arbitration award, among other reasons, “where there was evident partiality or corruption in the arbitrators.” 9 U.S.C. §10(a). However, as illustrated by a recently decided case in the Southern District of New York, U.S. district courts apply different standards of…

Arbitration, Asia-Pacific, UNCITRAL Model Law

(Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP)/ /Leave a comment

and Matthew Lee* Introduction Last Wednesday, the international arbitration community in Australia won a significant victory. Indeed, in TCL Air Conditioner (Zhongshan) Co Ltd v The Judges of the Federal Court of Australia [2013] HCA 5 (13 March 2013), S178/2012, the Australian High Court (“Court”) dismissed a challenge to the constitutionality of the International Arbitration…

Domestic Courts, Enforcement, Middle East, New York Convention, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

A recent ruling of the Dubai Court of First Instance (see Case No. 489/2012, ruling of the Dubai Court of First Instance of 18 December 2012) questions de novo the UAE courts’ compliance with their obligations under international enforcement instruments in the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. Following the recent trend of consolidation of the…

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…

Arbitration, Arbitration Act, Domestic Courts, Domestic law, Enforcement, Europe, Evidence, Interim Orders

(Linklaters)/ /Leave a comment

The recent Portuguese Voluntary Arbitration Law, which has been in force since 14 March 2012, (English version available here), was received with great enthusiasm amongst the legal community, which claimed for a new arbitration law that could bring to Portugal a regulatory framework closer to the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration. The goal…

Arbitration clause, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Asia-Pacific, Enforcement of an arbitration clause, ICC Arbitration, Singapore International Arbitration Centre

(Herbert Smith Freehills LLP)/ /1 Comment
Herbert Smith Freehills

In the case of HKL Group Co Ltd v Rizq International Holdings Pte Ltd the Singapore High Court (the “High Court”) has considered whether an arbitration clause in a contract which provided for disputes to be settled by arbitration in Singapore by a non-existent institution under the rules of the ICC was inoperable. The High…

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…

Africa, BIT, Foreign Investment Law, Investment, Investment agreements

(Mishcon de Reya)/ /Leave a comment

In recent years, African states have taken several initiatives to increase the protection of and legal security offered to foreign investors. However, a lot of work is unfinished and some of it is even frustrated. Some examples. Bilateral Investment Treaties Bilateral investment treaties (‘BITs’) are critical to foreign investors considering investing in Africa. Such BITs…

Africa, Arbitration, Arbitrators, Investment protection

(Lazareff Le Bars)/ /Leave a comment

Over the past decade, Africa has emerged as a leading center of economic growth. From mining and manufacturing, to banking and telecoms, nearly every industry is witnessing rapid expansion in Africa, driven by both African enterprises and businesses from around the world. Naturally, an increase in international commerce has resulted in an attendant increase in…

Appeal, Arbitration Awards, Asia-Pacific, China, Costs, Hong Kong, Set aside an arbitral award, UNCITRAL Model Law

(Herbert Smith Freehills)/ /1 Comment
Herbert Smith Freehills

By Justin D’Agostino, Martin Wallace and Yi-Shun Teoh The Year of the Snake has begun auspiciously for arbitration in Hong Kong, with a recent decision of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (“CFA”) underlining once again the jurisdiction’s arbitration-friendly credentials and the reluctance of its courts to interfere with the arbitral process and arbitral…

Arbitration, Competition Law, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /1 Comment

The vexed question of the arbitrability vel non of competition law has now reached the shores of the United Arab Emirates. Readers will, of course, be aware that this question has been answered in the affirmative – and most will agree rightly so – in the world’s leading arbitration jurisdictions, in particular in Europe and…

Evidence, International Courts, Investment Arbitration, North America, Section 1782 Discovery

(Notre Dame Law School)/ /Leave a comment

I have posted on SSRN my latest article, “Ancillary Discovery to Prove Denial of Justice” just published in the Virginia Journal of International Law. It analyzes Section 1782 discovery proceedings in the context of BIT arbitration and argues that there is now uniform agreement among federal courts that investment arbitration panels are “international tribunals” within…

Book Review, Commercial Arbitration, United States

(Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /Leave a comment
WilmerHale

Winter holidays invite fun reading, including good professional reading, that most of the rest of the year forbids. Not exactly beach reads, but the same idea. And, this year, readers from the United States with interests in international arbitration, had their choice among a host of new offerings. Three warrant special mention. First, Professor Bo…

Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Proceedings, Middle East, New York Convention, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

Those who feared that following Sir David Steel J’s ruling in Injazat Capital Limited and Injazat Technology Fund B.S.C. v. Denton Wilde Sapte & Co before the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Court of First Instance (ruling of 6 March 2012 in Claim No. CFI 019/2010, for previous reporting see here), the DIFC Courts and…

Argentina, ICSID Convention, Investment, South America

(Queen Mary University of London)/ /Leave a comment

So you placed your bets on Argentina’s recovery after the 2001 crisis? It is not too late to give it another thought. While Argentina’s economy grew by approximately 9 percent in 2011, it fell dramatically in 2012 to around 3 percent. The (unofficial) inflation rate is set to 25% and the dollar reached a staggering…

Asia-Pacific, Foreign Investment Law, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Legislation

(Mishcon de Reya)/ /Leave a comment

On 2 November 2012, President Thein Sein approved, after several months of intense debate between Parliament and the Government, Myanmar’s new Foreign Investment Law (‘FIL’ or ‘the Law’).  The new Law revises the framework for foreign investment in Myanmar which had been in place since a military coup in 1988. Considering the country’s abundant natural…

Appointment of arbitrators, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Asia-Pacific, Enforcement, Hong Kong, ICC Arbitration, Joinder, Set aside an arbitral award, Singapore International Arbitration Centre

(Norton Rose LLP)/ /Leave a comment

by Kah Cheong Lye (Partner) and Chuan Tat Yeo (Associate), Norton Rose (Asia) LLP Like computer programs, the length of time between updates for institutional rules seems to get shorter and shorter. New editions of institutional arbitral rules were introduced by the SIAC in 2010, the ICC in 2012, and the HKIAC’s revised Administered Arbitration…

Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Asia-Pacific, Dispute resolution clause, Enforcement of an arbitration clause, LCIA Arbitration, Singapore International Arbitration Centre

(Norton Rose Fulbright)/ /Leave a comment
YSIAC

In International Research Corp PLC v Lufthansa Systems Asia Pacific Pte Ltd [2012] SGHC 226 (per Chan Seng Onn J) (“International Research”), the Singapore High Court addressed the issue of whether an arbitration clause contained in one contract between two parties binds a third party who subsequently enters into a supplemental agreement with the original…

Arbitration, Asia-Pacific, Domestic Courts, Domestic law, Enforcement, Set aside an arbitral award, Set aside an international arbitral award, Uncategorized

(Chapman Tripp)/ /2 Comments

Arbitration is underpinned by natural justice. Article 18 of the Model Law, enshrining the right of the parties to be treated with equality, and given a full opportunity to present their case, was described by UNCITRAL in 1985 as the “Magna Carta of Arbitral Procedure”. Yet the Model Law does not in Articles 34 and…

Arbitration, BIT, Damages, ICSID Convention, International arbitration, International Law, Latin America, Manifest disregard of the law

(New York Law School)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

By Tai-Heng Cheng* & Lucas Bento** Introduction On October 5th, 2012, a split ICSID tribunal determined that the Republic of Ecuador had breached the US-Ecuador bilateral investment treaty (“BIT”), and awarded damages of US$1.77 billion (US$2.3 billion with interest applied), reportedly the largest award ever to have been issued by an ICSID tribunal. This award…

BIT, Europe, European Law, European Union

(Perréard de Boccard)/ /Leave a comment

Two major events have taken place recently regarding the situation of Bilateral Investment Treaties concluded between European Member States (“Intra-EU BITs”) and Bilateral Investment Treaties concluded between an European Member State and a State not Member of the EU (“Extra-EU BITs”). The fate of these agreements was surrounded up until now by a veil of…

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…