The recent decision issued by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in Pao Tatneft v. Ukraine reopened the door to whether a country waives sovereign immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (the “FSIA”) by signing the New York Convention or other international treaties. In Pao Tatneft v. Ukraine, Tatneft,…
Writing in 2015 about the need to study the intersection between insurance and dispute resolution, Professor Robert H. Jerry II concluded as follows: “The business of insurance is first and foremost the business of providing financial security against the risk of loss, but when loss occurs, the business of insurance becomes the business of resolving…
Introduction Abdul Latif Jameel Transportation Co. Ltd. v. FedEx Corp., decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit earlier this month, is arguably the first post-Intel decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals that “permits discovery for use” in a “private commercial arbitration” under 28 U.S.C. § 1782(a). (Case No. 19-5315, at…
Arbitration is often used to avoid the messy processes of national litigation, sometimes involving years of appeals and hearings. But when you want to attach property to support your arbitral award, that itself can result in years-long litigation, as in the case of Stemcor USA, Inc. v. Cia Siderurgica Do Para. The delays in the…
Introduction The enforcement bar is becoming more specialized. This development follows the trend in U.S. litigation towards increasing specialization and the growth of niche practice industries; but it also stems from specific changes to the enforcement regime that are addressed in this article and that have important implications for the life-cycle of an international arbitration….
Mr. André, welcome to the Kluwer Arbitration Blog. We were pleased to have Mr. Hanft join us recently and are thrilled to have the opportunity to also share your perspective with our readers. To start, can you briefly introduce yourself and explain your role at CPR? Thank you very much for the invitation Kiran. At…
Mr. Hanft, welcome to the Kluwer Arbitration Blog! I appreciate the opportunity to share your perspective with our readers at an exciting moment, where conversations about politics, diversity, and technology are intersecting and transforming the way globalized corporations and their lawyers conceive of and approach dispute resolution. Before we delve in, can you briefly introduce…
United States Code Section 1782 has become the weapon of choice for international litigants seeking discovery in aid of foreign proceedings. Section 1782 allows an “interested person” (such as a foreign litigant) to apply for discovery over a person or entity “found” in the U.S. “for use” in a proceeding “in a foreign or international tribunal.”…
The decision made in the case of Hardy Exploration & Production (India), Inc. v. Government of India, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (Civ. Action No. 16-140 (D.D.C. 7 June 2018)) (“Hardy case”) is yet another decision in a string of outcomes under the New York Convention proving that the repeated adagio “if it ain’t broken,…
As we head into the new year, it is worth reflecting on major international arbitration-related developments in the United States during 2018 and their coverage on the blog. Early in the year, our authors homed in on the U.S. Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), which embodies U.S. arbitration law, including the New York Convention. As…
“Why don’t you go on west to California? There’s work there, and it never gets cold. Why, you can reach out anywhere and pick an orange. Why, there’s always some kind of crop to work in. Why don’t you go there?” – John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath Introduction For many years, the answer for international…
In light of the tariffs on steel imposed by the United States of America (“USA”), the Europe Union (“EU”) has threatened to impose tariffs of its own on American goods. Additionally, the EU has also filed a claim against USA at the World Trade Organisation (“WTO”). However, as discussed below, it may be that this…
On May 21st, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis (“Epic Systems”) held in a 5-4 majority that one-on-one mandatory arbitration agreements imposed by employers upon their employees must be enforced as written in accordance with the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”). The majority opinion, written by Justice Neil…
The recent American case of Weirton Medical Center Inc v Community Health Systems Inc (N.D. W. Va. Dec. 12, 2017) is another reminder that the debate over the place of summary disposal in arbitration has not been settled. This issue has previously been in the spotlight notably through the transatlantic case of Travis Coal Restructured…
The recent decision by an intermediate New York appellate court in AlbaniaBEG Ambient Sh.p.k. v. Enel S.p.A.1)A.D.3d, No. 152679/14, 2018 WL 755355 (N.Y. App. Div. 1st Dep’t Feb. 8, 2018). has sharply curtailed “a procedural loophole in Chapter 2 of the Federal Arbitration Act”2)Commissions Imp. Exp. S.A. v. Republic of Congo, 916 F. Supp. 2d…
The importance of memorializing a settlement agreement into a consent award was recently highlighted in Transocean Offshore Gulf of Guinea Vii v. Erin Energy Corp., Case No. H-17-2623 (S.D. Tex. March 12, 2018). There, a Texas district court addressed whether a consent award is subject to confirmation in the United States pursuant to the New…
The central point of this note is that the U.S. law of arbitration is not clear from the text of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The FAA is archaic and in need of updating. The FAA is the oldest – but still functioning – arbitration statute in the world. Case law has rewritten much of…
In the first part of this article, we discussed the need to broaden the debate about the UK’s future trading relationships, touched upon some potential advantages of the UK joining the NAFTA and traced the idea’s limited history. Is there political will? These days, the idea remains on the periphery, even out of sight. Each…
To many, it would seem foolish even to ask whether the UK might join the North American Free Trade Agreement. Yet, the UK should explore all possibilities open in a post-Brexit world. As we explain, the idea that the UK might join the NAFTA is not only conceptually interesting, but also merits entertaining with a…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has enforced an arbitration clause in a maritime insurance policy, finding the policy subject to the Federal Arbitration Act, and not “reverse preempted” by the McCarran-Ferguson Act. In so holding, the court determined that the policy’s choice-of-law clause and arbitration provision controlled over somewhat different language…
Several recent circuit-level decisions have shown that U.S. courts are willing to review a foreign court’s annulment of an arbitration award to determine whether the annulment conflicts with U.S. public policy. This exercise inherently involves normative judgments and leads to the question of whether U.S. courts may be “out of their depth” in making such…
On the heels of a year that has seen the rise of populist nationalism, skepticism of multilateral trade agreements and calls to tighten in some ways the flow of people across borders – perhaps most visibly in the United States and across Europe, but with manifestations elsewhere – many communities saw a retreat from international…
Debates about the propriety of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) were revived by a recent letter by U.S. academics, which urged the abandonment of ISDS in the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This letter repeated arguments that are familiar from prior ISDS debates, such as that ISDS “grants foreign corporations and investors rights to skirt domestic…
After the US election, it was a certainty that in my inbox every morning there was at least one, if not more, email with a discussion on the future of arbitration in our changing society today. And this debate has continued in halls of university law schools to GAR events to law firm seminars. I…
