Today, concurrent with the 75th anniversary of the Netherlands Arbitration Institute (“NAI”), the new 2024 NAI Arbitration Rules (the “NAI Rules”) will enter into force and be applicable to NAI arbitrations filed on or after 1 March 2024. The new NAI Rules, which had been last revised in 2015, introduce a number of innovative features…

Under Article 34 of the UNCITRAL Model Law (“Model Law”), an arbitral award may be set aside if the arbitration agreement is “not valid”. A more controversial issue is whether setting aside avenues should also be available in the opposite scenario, i.e., when a tribunal found that no valid arbitration agreement existed and declined jurisdiction….

On 28 February 2020, two Dutch investors obtained a favourable arbitral award against Spain. The tribunal found that Spain had violated the Energy Charter and ordered Spain to pay damages of EUR 15.4 million to AES Solar Energy Coöperatief U.A. (AES) and EUR 11.1 million to Ampere Equity Fund B.V. (AEF). Despite Spain’s attempts to…

Confidentiality is perceived to be one of the advantages of international (commercial) arbitration. Despite this, institutional arbitration rules are largely (or even completely) silent on the parties’ confidentiality obligations, leaving such issues to be determined by the parties and/or the tribunal or, in many cases, the applicable law. Defining what the duty of confidentiality –…

On 15 September 2021, the Netherlands Arbitration Institute (NAI) and Young NAI organized a webinar that focused on the upcoming 2022 NAI Arbitration Rules and also covered other developments related to green arbitration, transparency, diversity and efficiency in international arbitration. Allen & Overy hosted the webinar, with Marieke van Hooijdonk opening the event.   The…

Western European countries have taken divergent approaches to dealing with the consequences of shutting down power plants while transitioning towards cleaner energy sources. On one side, Germany resolved the resulting compensation disputes by making settlement payments to the owners of affected nuclear and coal power plants. In contrast, the Netherlands appears reluctant to similarly compensate…

The Achmea saga has taken yet another twist. In a recent communication to the Dutch Parliament, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate disclosed that it initiated “anti-arbitration” proceedings before the German courts on 11 May 2021 to “avert” two ECT-based ICSID arbitrations brought against it by the German energy companies RWE and Uniper (“Communication”)….

The dispute between the former owners of the Yukos oil company and the Russian Federation concerning damages of more than US$50 billion is the largest in the history of arbitration. With thousands of pages written on the topic, the dispute has been summarized in earlier posts (see, amongst others, here and here). Following three arbitrations…

Over the last few years, the arbitration community’s attention was drawn to the establishment of English-speaking international commercial courts in various jurisdictions around Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Some said these courts would become a competitor of arbitration, providing an alternative forum to the international business community. Others were sceptical that the mere promise…

The issue of adjournment of enforcement proceedings relating to foreign arbitral awards that are subject to setting aside proceedings has featured prominently before national courts in recent years and has been the subject of other contributions on this blog (see here and here). This topic is especially significant in the Netherlands, an important jurisdiction for…