The Paris Court of Appeal has recently sought a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on the interpretation of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) in the ongoing Republic of Moldova v. Komstroy case. A 20-Year-Old Tale The Republic of Moldova v. Komstroy case highlights the contradicting approaches to…
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…
Due process paranoia remains a live issue in international arbitration. Arbitrators can feel under pressure to fulfil their duties to give parties an opportunity to present their case whilst also ensuring that they produce an enforceable arbitral award. This concern to be seen to have delivered due process can arguably be increased when coupled with…
On 9 October 2019 the Supreme Court of Ukraine 1)This article refers to the Supreme Court created in the course of the judicial reform of 2016 in Ukraine. (Supreme Court) rendered a decision in a case on setting aside an arbitral award that goes completely against Article 3 of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International…
Like virtually all arbitration laws, the Austrian Arbitration Act is silent on whether the lack of impartiality and independence of an arbitrator may be invoked for the first time in setting aside proceedings in cases where a party becomes aware of the relevant circumstances only after the award was rendered. The Austrian Supreme Court has,…
I discussed in a previous post on the blog the decision of 18 February 2020 of the Court of Appeal in The Hague that revived the awards rendered in July 2014 against the Russian Federation in Veteran Petroleum Ltd., Yukos Universal Ltd. and Hulley Enterprises Ltd. cases. Those awards had been annulled in April 2016 on the basis that there…
The automatic stay provisions in the Indian arbitration regime have been a matter of a long debate. At first blush, the automatic stay seems like the perfect protection mechanism for any award debtor; however, it often puts the award creditor in a difficult spot. Arbitral awards rarely go unchallenged in India. The automatic stay provision…
Two and a half decades have passed since Hungary harmonised its arbitration law with UNCITRAL Model Law (‘Model Law’) in 1994. This marked a giant leap forward, especially as the adopted provisions were made applicable not only in international, but in purely domestic arbitrations as well. This post analyses the Hungarian case law on setting…
There have been some false dawns but Thailand has become significantly more arbitration-friendly in recent years. This post briefly canvasses the recent developments and identifies potential areas for further development. Amendments to the Thai Arbitration Act – Arbitrators and Representatives Allowed to Work in Thailand Previously, foreign arbitrators were required to undergo an onerous…
The English High Court (the Court) has recently issued two judgments clarifying its approach to determining whether a decision by an arbitral tribunal is an award or a procedural order. A few months ago in ZCCM Investment Holdings PLC v Kansanshi Holdings PLC & Anor (ZCCM), the Court identified a list of factors that it…
As reported in earlier blog posts on the Kluwer Arbitration Blog, 1) See, e.g., Zoltán Novák, New Arbitration Act in Hungary, Kluwer Arbitration Blog, 15 October 2017; Alexandra Bognár, Hungary: Are Interim Measures Hard to Enforce?, Kluwer Arbitration Blog, 18 July 2017; Ioana Knoll-Tudor, The 2018 Hungarian Arbitration Act: Implications of the New Setting Aside…
Introduction In international arbitration, winning an award is not the end of the story. Instead, a favorable business outcome depends on successful enforcement of the award in the jurisdiction(s) where the opponent’s assets are situated. Unfortunately for the winning party, the losing party may delay or even avoid enforcement by raising challenges and instigating proceedings…
Although Central Asia has geostrategic importance in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe as the heart of the ‘Silk Road’, the Kyrgyz Republic in Central Asia1)Central Asia consists of 5 countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan) and Kyrgyzstan is a landlocked nation bordered by China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. has remained relatively unknown, especially…
London International Disputes Week continued yesterday with the session dedicated to international commercial arbitration, hosted by Herbert Smith Freehills LLP. The first panel, moderated by Chantal-Aimée Doerries QC, Atkin Chambers, discussed the future of international arbitration in London, and in particular what London offers and where it must improve in order to maintain its place…
In RJ v HB [2018] EWHC 2833 (Comm) (‘RJ’), Andrew Baker J (‘Baker J’) found that the facts disclosed a serious irregularity under s68 of the English Arbitration Act 1996 (‘the Act’).1)The author wishes to thank Ms Rachel Foxton, Mr Harry Francis Millerchip, and Ms Jenna Hare. The views in this article should not be…
Much ink has been spilt on the legal consequences of remitting an award back to an arbitral tribunal vis-à-vis setting it aside. The Singapore Court of Appeal in the seminal decision of AKN v. ALC [2015] SGCA 63 has settled that remission is not possible after an award has been set aside. Rather, remission is…
INTRODUCTION It is fairly known that the Indian Limitation Act, 1963 (the Limitation Act) constitutes “general law” for Time Periods and its computation. Section 29(2) of the said Act contains the fundamental rule that provisions of Limitation Act would apply for computation of time period prescribed by any special law only to the extent it…
The Supreme Court of India (“SC”) in its recent decision M/s Lion Engineering Consultants v. State of M.P. & Ors. (“Lion”) has held that a party that had failed to raise a jurisdictional challenge before the arbitral tribunal under Section 16 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“Act”), would yet be permitted to raise such…
The Supreme Court of India (“Court”) in a landmark decision titled “BCCI vs. Kochi Cricket Pvt. Ltd. (previously covered in a blog post) clarified the applicability of the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015 (“Amendment Act”) to pending arbitration and court proceedings commenced under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“1996 Act”). The Court held…
In a decision dated 26 July 2018 and published on 29 August 2018, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (the “Supreme Court”) dismissed an appeal to set aside an arbitral award as it found that Swiss public policy was not violated by a sole arbitrator’s confirmation of a success fee owed to a Swiss law firm…
A mandatory legal provision is one that a party has no choice but to obey, whereas a directory provision is one which the party is encouraged to obey. In other words, a mandatory provision must be observed, disobedience of which would lead to a nullification of the legal act, whereas a directory provision is optional….
Part I In a judgment dated 5 April 2018 (Case nº 6/2017), the Madrid High Court of Justice (“TSJM”), the competent court to hear applications to set aside an award when the seat of the arbitration is Madrid, set aside an arbitration award on public policy grounds after finding that the tribunal “[…] unjustifiably omitted…
The Indian Parliament passed the Indian Arbitration & Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015 (“Amendment Act”) in a bid to refresh and reform the existing arbitration regime under the existing Arbitration Act. Ironically, the Amendment Act spiralled new waves of persistent ambiguity and uncertainty regarding the applicability of these amendments to pending as well as fresh proceedings…
Enforcement for some may be a chimera, an overrated factor in choosing the dispute resolution methods.1)Cameron Ford, The Enforcement Chimera, Kluwer Arbitration Blog, May 10. 2018. Yet, efforts that have been invested in enforcement of judgments within the Hague Conference on Private International Law2)See the Draft Judgments Convention and of international commercial settlement agreements reached…
