In December 2015, I published an article examining whether there was a trend towards the elimination of umbrella clauses from investment agreements, be they bilateral, multilateral, or model investment treaties. By that time, model bilateral investment treaties (BITs) from the United States, France, Canada, Colombia, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and many prominent…
As on May 1, 2017, 60751 cases were pending in the Indian Supreme Court. Likewise, as per the data available, a total of 41,53,957 cases are pending in the twenty-four High Courts in India. The rate at which these cases are disposed, for various reasons like the vacancies for the position of judges, inefficient procedures,…
Introduction: In December 2016, Morocco and Nigeria signed the Reciprocal Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (“Bilateral Investment Treaty” or “BIT”) – an agreement between two countries for the provision of foreign investment to the nationals and companies from one country, in the other. This BIT contains some innovative provisions that attempt to strike a balance…
There has been much recent judicial activism in Spain in arbitration matters. Although the grounds for annulment of an arbitral award are limited in Spanish Arbitration Law (Article 41) and reflect the UNCITRAL Model Law standards, the volume of recent annulment decisions and the array of issues considered have been noteworthy. The most active court…
The recent decision in P v Q [2017] EWHC 148 (Comm) provided, for the first time, guidance on how a Court will approach an application for disclosure in support of an application to remove Arbitral Tribunal members under s.24 Arbitration Act 1996. Background The Claimant had brought an application to remove two wing members (the…
The Federal Law No. 7 of 2016 recently amended Article 257 of the UAE Penal Code to impose criminal liability on arbitrators, experts and translators who issue decisions and opinions contrary to the duties of impartiality and neutrality. The amendment became effective on 18 October 2016. As we have seen in the last few months,…
Betto Seraglini – on secondment at Enyo Law LLP S.18 of the Arbitration Act 1996 – When And How To Use It – Silver Dry Bulk Co Ltd (Claimant) v Homer Hulbert Maritime Co Ltd (Respondent), 13 January 2017. S. 18 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (the “Act”), on the power of the courts to…
The Qatar Financial Center Civil and Commercial Court (“QFC Court”) is considered a Qatari on-shore Court established in 2009 and modelled on leading international corporate courts. Under the new Qatari Arbitration Law (“Law n. 2 of 2017”), the QFC Court has a very decisive role to play. By Agreement of the Parties, the QFC Court…
Earlier this year, the Dubai-DIFC Judicial Committee established by the Ruler of Dubai by virtue of Decree No. (19) of 2016 (also know as the “Judicial Tribunal” or the “Joint Judicial Committee”) rendered its first decision (see Cassation No. 1/2016 (JT) – Daman Real Capital Partners Company LLC v. Oger Dubai LLC, hearing of 19…
The first blog in this two-part series, published last year, discussed the growing concern of arbitration users over “due process paranoia”. In that first blog, due process paranoia was defined as the perceived reluctance by arbitral tribunals to act decisively (for example by rejecting applications for extensions of time, refusing amendments to submissions, rejecting new…
Article 19 of the Incentives for Public-Private Partnerships and Foreign Investment Act (“PPP Act”) recognizes local and international arbitration as one of the dispute resolution methods that has arisen in Public-Private Partnership agreements (“PPP agreements”). Article 20 of this Act and articles 19, 20, 21, and 22 of its Regulations set forth certain rules for…
In Scherk v. Alberto-Culver Co, the US Supreme Court stated that “[a] contractual provision specifying in advance the forum in which disputes shall be litigated and the law to be applied is an almost indispensable precondition to achievement of the orderliness and predictability essential to any international business transaction.” While this statement holds almost invariably…
On December 21, 2016, the Tribunal in Hochtief v Argentina issued an award on damages against Argentina in an arbitration brought under the Argentina-Germany BIT. The Claimant had alleged multiple treaty breaches by Argentina, arising out of the 2000 economic crisis, and originally sought US$ 54 million in damages. Although the Tribunal found that Argentina…
Introduction “The world is curious about Myanmar”, said U Htay Aung, Union Minister of Hotels and Tourism of Myanmar at the World Economic Forum on East Asia in 2013. And indeed, he is right. This article serves as evidence. Myanmar has managed to take a number of important steps in gradually opening up its economy,…
When implemented and understood properly by all players involved, international commercial arbitration should run like a well-oiled machine. Jurisdictions such as France, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland understand this – from the legislature, to the courts, to the practitioners and parties involved. Many other jurisdictions, such as the United States, Singapore and Hong Kong…
“Help! I need somebody Help! Not just anybody Help! You know I need someone, help … And now my life has changed in oh so many ways, My independence seems to vanish in the haze …” Help raises a question of need, but does it lead to a loss of the fundamental decision-making power vested…
To the great excitement (some may say consternation) of the local legal profession, by adoption of a decree earlier this year (see Decree No. (19) of 2016 forming the Judicial Committee of the Dubai Court and the DIFC Courts, dated 9 June 2016), which entered into immediate effect (see Art. 8, Decree No. (19) of…
On 20 September 2016, in a somewhat unanticipated move, the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC) and the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Dispute Resolution Authority (DRA) – which comprises both the DIFC Academy of Law and the DIFC Courts, the autonomous common law judiciary based in the DIFC – signed a Memorandum of Understanding to…
In February 2016, the Egyptian Conseil d’État rejected a draft sports law (the “Sports Law” or the “Law”) proposed by the Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sports (the “Ministry”) because its dispute resolution provisions did not comply with the Egyptian Constitution. Among its many responsibilities, the Conseil d’État is the authority in charge of reviewing…
In William Lim and Another v. Hung Ka Hai Clement and Others [2016] HKCFI 1439; HCA 1282/2016 (24 August 2016), the Hong Kong Court of First Instance ordered a stay of court proceedings and referred an ongoing dispute to arbitration pursuant to s 20 (1) of the Arbitration Ordinance (Cap 609). The Court found that…
For more than a decade, Argentina has been living in a permanent crisis, which affected all sectors of the economy and turned out in an avalanche of investment cases, many of them under the ICSID Convention. Thus, Argentina became one of the most active players in the investor-state dispute settlement system, facing almost 60 cases…
On 28 July 2016, in a judgment of Justice Sir Jeremy Cooke (see CFI 020/2016 – Brookfield Multiplex Constructions LLC v. (1) DIFC Investments LLC (2) Dubai International Financial Centre Authority, ruling of the DIFC Court of First Instance of 28 July 2016), the DIFC Court of First Instance ruled, in principle, in favour of…
Can an international arbitral tribunal admit emails and documents as evidence if these documents were obtained by hacking a computer network? The ICSID tribunal in Caratube International Oil Company and Mr Devincci Saleh Hourani v Kazakhstan (ICSID Case No. ARB/13/13) held, “in principle Yes”, in a decision which is not yet published but has been…
McGill University Faculty of Law was delighted to receive more than 70 submissions from scholars and junior practitioners affiliated with more than 60 institutions for the 2016 Nappert Prize in International Arbitration. After an initial review, anonymized versions of more than half of the submitted papers – written by students from some two dozen countries…
