Since 2019, Working Group (“WG”) V of UNCITRAL has been working on the adoption of a choice of law instrument that regulates the law applicable to the international effects of insolvency proceedings. The project seeks to include a rule on the law governing the impact of insolvency in arbitration. Part I of this post examines…

Building on Part I of this post, Part II explains the serious practical disfunctions that would derive from the adoption by Working Group V (“WG V”) at UNCITRAL of the current proposal to subject all the effects of insolvency in arbitration to the law of the State in which insolvency proceedings have been opened (the…

Part One of this blog post discussed how uncertainty can arise in determining the Limitations laws that apply in international commercial arbitration proceedings. Part Two will now discuss some potential solutions.   One Solution The United Kingdom modified the traditional common law approach with the enactment of the Foreign Limitation Periods Act 1984 (UK), which…

This two-part blog post discusses applicable limitation laws, i.e., legislation purporting to limit the time period within which claims in international commercial arbitration proceedings must be commenced (Limitation laws). It raises questions regarding how arbitral tribunals ought to decide whether to apply such Limitation laws and whether attempts to classify them as matters of ‘substance’…

Introduction The United States announced the reinstatement of sanctions on Iran in May 2018. Following that, the EU responded by revising their Blocking Regulation (Regulation 2271/96) in August 2018. The Blocking Regulation was designed to safeguard European entities from the extraterritorial reach of the U.S. sanctions. The uncertainty surrounding the scope of application and the nature of blocking…

Introduction The lex arbitri of Switzerland is well-known for affording parties maximum autonomy and procedural flexibility. In line with these principles, parties to international arbitration proceedings have the possibility to opt out of the otherwise applicable Chapter 12 of the Swiss Private International Law Act (“PILA”) and to opt into the statutory rules governing Swiss-seated…

Without any doubt, international commercial arbitration found its place in the system of international dispute settlement. Many natural and legal persons choose to solve their disputes via the means of arbitration and in most of the cases arbitration is international in many aspects: Parties are from different countries, arbitrators are of different nationalities, sitting in…

The international arbitration community has lately been occupied with various proposals to reform investor-state disputes. On the interstate level, a consensus seems to be building that several aspects of the current system need to be modified in order for the system to safeguard its own legitimacy. In this context, there are various reform proposals floated…

Introduction It is a key principle in many jurisdictions across the world that arbitration clauses should be separable from the underlying contract in which they are contained. This prevents arbitration clauses from being denuded of their effect, particularly where the contract is void for fraud. However, not all jurisdictions uphold the separability principle. Therefore, in…

Russia has recently revised its arbitration laws. The key development of the reform is to address the arbitrability of so-called “corporate disputes.” The new laws lift the longstanding ban on arbitrating most types of controversies relating to a Russian company. There is a catch, though: the lawmakers set out mandatory procedural conditions with which any…

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and should not be regarded as representative of, or binding upon ArbitralWomen and/or ICC, the Court or its Secretariat. Hypochondria is defined as an excessive preoccupation with one’s health, usually focusing on some particular symptom. Could excessive preoccupation about the place of arbitration…

Longlide, Shenhua Coal and the issue ahead In a case regarded by many as a “milestone” for arbitration in China, Longlide Packing and Printing Co. Ltd. v. BP Agnati S.r.l (hereinafter “Longlide”) (Reply of the Supreme People’s Court to the Request for Instructions on Application for Confirming the Validity of an Arbitration Agreement in the…

In an article published recently in The New York Times, entitled ‘Cities compete to be the arena for global legal disputes’, Elizabeth Olson discusses a phenomenon that has been labeled ‘the Battle of the Seats’. This concept refers to the competition between different cities to be considered as ‘arbitration hubs’. Cities all over the world…