Enforceability, India, Multi-tiered clauses

(SIAC)/ /Leave a comment

Modern day arbitration agreements usually contain provisions that require parties to take certain steps before the commencement of arbitration. Such clauses, often described as “multi-tiered” clauses, set out a sequence for invoking the arbitration agreement. Typically, pre-arbitration steps include procedures such as time-bound mediations, amicable settlements, cooling-off periods, and other forms of non-binding determinations. Despite…

Africa, Appointment of arbitrators, Arbitral seat, Arbitral Tribunal, Arbitration Industry, Arbitrators, Diversity, International arbitration, Interview, Interviews with Our Editors

(Equanimity Arbitration)/ /Leave a comment

  A common concern for arbitration practitioners in Africa is that when it comes to African seated arbitrations, African practitioners are underrepresented. The African Arbitration Association (AfAA) was set up as a combined vision of practitioners in the region to create a platform that would encourage and create more opportunities for greater representation of African…

Arbitration, BIT, Energy Charter Treaty, EU Law, International arbitration, Intra-EU BITs, Intra-EU Investment Arbitration, Intra-EU ISDS, Investment Arbitration, Multilateral Investment Court

(NL-Investmentconsulting)/ /Leave a comment

The regular readers of the Kluwer Arbitration Blog will recall my blog at the beginning of this year in which I predicted that 2019 would be the ‘Year of the big Harvest’ for the European Commission regarding its efforts to permanently change the landscape of international investment law and arbitration. This posts will review the…

Arbitration, Arbitration institution, DIAC, UAE Federal Arbitration Law, United Arab Emirates

(Galadari Advocates & Legal Consultants) and (Al Tamimi & Company )/ /Leave a comment

Introduction The Dubai International Arbitration Centre (“DIAC”) is a regional arbitration centre created by statue in 1994 as part of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (the “Chamber”). On 23 April 2019, the Ruler of Dubai issued Decree No. 17 of 2019 approving a new statute for DIAC (the “New DIAC Statute”). The New…

Annulment, Appeal, Arbitral Award, Awards, ICSID, United States

, (Arent Fox)/ /Leave a comment

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….

Argentina, Fork in the road, ICSID Convention, Interim measures, Latin America, National Courts

(Knoetzl Haugeneder Netal Rechtsanwaelte GmbH)/ /Leave a comment

In April 2019, an Argentinean court ordered a company not to initiate an investment arbitration before ICSID based on the bilateral investment treaty between the Argentine Republic and the Republic of Chile (“BIT”).  The Federal Court in Civil and Commercial Matters No. 5 (the “Court”) ordered the interim measure in a case between the Argentinean…

Kluwer Mediation Blog, Mediation, Mediation Act, Negotiation

(Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London)/ /Leave a comment

“In negotiations of all kinds, the greater your capacity for empathy – the more carefully you try to understand all of the other side’s motivations, interests and constraints – the more options you tend to have for potentially resolving the dispute or deadlock”. Deepak Malhotra of Harvard Business School quoted by John Sturrock in Process…

Africa, MENA, Middle East, Morocco, OHADA, Organization of Islamic Cooperation

(Concepción Global, PLLC, Universidad Complutense de Madrid)/ /Leave a comment

In light of several recent developments in Morocco, its status as an international arbitration hub in Africa is worth a focus. This blog post will specifically consider the rise and recognition of economic opportunities in Africa, Morocco’s lead as a diplomatic power in Africa, the country’s experience with investment and commercial arbitration, and the emergence…

Bolivia, Negotiation, Post-award interest, Settlement, Sovereign Immunity

(Guevara & Gutiérrez S.C.)/ /Leave a comment

One of the main objectives of investment arbitration, as a feature of international investment law, is to provide a neutral forum for the parties in dispute. Neutrality is necessary because the parties are fundamentally different: while the investor is a private entity, the state is a sovereign entity with sovereign immunity. However, the scenario of…

Armed Conflict, International Humanitarian Law, Investment protection

(Ruhr-University)/ /Leave a comment

On 1 and 2 March 2019, a group of international humanitarian law (IHL) and international investment law (IIL) experts came together for a workshop at Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. The event, organized and hosted by Tobias Ackermann (Bochum) and Sebastian Wuschka (Hamburg / Bochum), dealt with the interplay between IIL and the legal regimes that apply…

Apparent bias, Bias, Deepwater Horizon, Disclosure, Impartiality, Multiple appointments, Removal of arbitrator

, (Corrs Chambers Westgarth)/ /1 Comment

The UK Supreme Court will hear an appeal from Halliburton Company v Chubb Bermuda Insurance Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ 817 on whether an arbitrator may accept appointments in multiple references concerning the overlapping subject matter with only one common party, without giving rise to an appearance of bias and without disclosure. As it stands, the…

Construction, Construction arbitration, Surveys

(School of International Arbitration, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)) and (School of International Arbitration, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) )/ /1 Comment

Anecdotally, the time and cost of arbitrating international construction disputes is one of the biggest sources of dissatisfaction. This was reflected in the discussion on the final day of London International Disputes Week at the international construction disputes panels. This is unsurprising as previous Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) surveys identified cost and lack…

Belt Road Initiative, Central Asia, Investment, Uzbekistan

(Law Offices of Kiran N Gore PLLC; The George Washington University Law School)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction According to UNESCO, the first caravans aiming to connect East (China) with West (Central Asia) were dispatched in 138 AD, leading eventually to the formulation of what we know today as the Great Silk Road.  The Uzbek corridor, consisting of Bukhara, Tashkent, and Samarkand, provided key routes for trade and also served as a…

Arbitration, Iran-United States Claims Tribunal

(University of Cambridge)/ /Leave a comment
Young ITA

During its most active years, between 1982 and 1994, the nine members of the Iran-US Claims Tribunal (at all times 3 from Iran, 3 from the US, and three “neutral” arbitrators) ruled on hundreds of disputes, sometimes involving particularly fraught points of international law, all this while applying and interpreting the UNCITRAL Rules of arbitration…

Africa, Arbitration, Djibouti, ICSID, ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, ICSID Procedure, International arbitration, Investment Arbitration

(University of Arkansas School of Law)/ /1 Comment

On April 12, 2019, the Republic of Djibouti (“Djibouti”) signed the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (“ICSID Convention” or “Convention”). To date, the Convention has been signed by 163 countries and ratified by 154 countries. Why is Djibouti signing the ICSID Convention at a time when…

Arbitration, Brazil, Forgery, kompetenz-kompetenz, Negative Effect, Positive Effect

(Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan UK LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction Unlike other pillars of arbitration like recognition-enforcement of foreign awards and independence-impartiality of arbitrators, the Kompetenz-Kompetenz rule is far from a universal standard. Each jurisdiction has a particular rule, with clear distinctions between the approaches adopted, for example, by the US, the UK, France, Switzerland and China.1)For a comprehensive comparison of these legal systems,…

Arbitration, Interview

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What drew you to the world of International Arbitration? Before moving to the United States, I practiced law in Croatia where I gained litigation experience, among other. I love the dispute resolution aspect of legal work, and especially that of advocating for clients before a court or tribunal. During my Bluebook traineeship at the Legal…

Arbitration, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Costs in arbitral proceedings, Delos, International arbitration

(Delos)/ /Leave a comment

As the recent launch of the Prague Rules and the discussions at the Paris Arbitration Week 2019 and London International Disputes Week 2019 have shown, discussions around time and cost efficiency in arbitration remain a key concern of users and the arbitration community. This article accordingly reports on the launch event held by Delos Dispute…

Journal of International Arbitration

(ArbBoutique & Queen Mary University of London)/ /1 Comment

We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions:   ARTICLES Klaus Peter Berger: Common Law v. Civil Law in International Arbitration – The Beginning or the End? The presentation of the Prague Rules on the Efficient Conduct of Proceedings in International Arbitration…

Enforcement, Foreign arbitral awards, MENA, Middle East, United Arab Emirates

(Watson Farley & Williams (Middle East) LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction On 9 December 2018, the UAE adopted Cabinet Resolution No. 57 of 2018, which entered into force on 16 February 2019 (the “Cabinet Resolution“). The Cabinet Resolution introduces significant amendments to the UAE Civil Procedure Code (Federal Law No. 11 of 1992), which considerably enhance a wide array of procedures before the UAE onshore…

Guaidó, ICC Arbitration, Latin America, PDVSA, Petropar, Settlement

(FERRERE Abogados)/ /1 Comment

On March 19, 2019, an ICC tribunal seated in Paris and comprised of Claus von Wobeser (chairman), Francesca Mazza, and Horacio Grigera Naón, issued a procedural order staying the arbitration proceedings between Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (“PDVSA” for its acronym in Spanish, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company) and Petróleos Paraguayos (“PETROPAR” for its acronym in…

Clean Hands Doctrine, Evidence

(National Law University, Jodhpur)/ /Leave a comment

Arbitral tribunals have, in various instances, allowed parties to rely on documents obtained illegally as evidence. Practically, however, such documents are of a privileged character, e.g. emails exchanged between attorneys and clients, any information related to a set of confidential proceedings or communications between a psychotherapist and a patient. Privileged documents deserve higher legal protection…

Arbitration, Arbitration Act, New Zealand, Reform, Trust

(Bankside Chambers)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction On 8 May 2019, the Arbitration Amendment Act 2019 (the Amendment Act) came into force.  It amends the Arbitration Act 1996 and is a much watered-down version of the original proposal.  The Amendment Act makes three changes: (i) the insertion of a new waiver sub-clause in Article 16 of Schedule 1 of the Arbitration Act (which…

Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Environment, ICSID, International arbitration, Investment Arbitration

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The CERSA (CNRS, University Paris II Panthéon-Assas) organized its fourth event in a series of seminars on selected topics in international investment law and ISDS. On 28 March 2019, a distinguished panel of practitioners and academics gathered in Paris to exchange views on ‘Environmental Considerations in Investment Arbitration’. The discussion was moderated by Catharine Titi…