Enforcement, Sovereign Immunities, Sovereign Immunity, State entity, State Immunity, Waiver, World Bank

(Durham Law School)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction The issues pertaining to “sovereign immunity” in international arbitration are not new. Nevertheless, several aspects remain unresolved.1)Kaj Hobér, Sovereign Immunity and International Arbitration – Recent developments, Arbitrators’ Insights, Essays in Honour of Neil Kaplan (Sweet & Maxwell, 2012), 91. Sovereign immunity from execution is said to be “the last fortress, the last bastion of State…

Arbitration, Arbitration Act, Costs, Nigeria

(Queen's University Faculty of Law) and (Africa Arbitration Academy )/ /2 Comments
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

The past few months have witnessed several momentous developments for international arbitration in Africa. Angola, Cabo Verde, and Sudan acceded to the New York Convention; South Africa adopted a new International Arbitration Act; the OHADA Council of Ministers adopted three new texts on arbitration and mediation; and the Nigerian Arbitration and Conciliation Act (Repeal and…

Applicable Law, Arbitration, Arbitration Agreement, Courts, New York Convention, UNCITRAL Model Law

(National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law)/ /Leave a comment

Part 1 of this blog argued that courts that are asked to resolve Article 8(1) Model Law disputes should adopt a deferential approach to tribunal competence under both a contextual and purposive interpretation of the Model Law or similar provisions aimed at giving effect to Art II(3) NYC. On this proposed view, such a court…

Applicable Law, Arbitration, Arbitration Agreement, Courts, New York Convention, UNCITRAL Model Law

(National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law)/ /1 Comment

A crucial issue in arbitration is determining the proper relationship between courts and the arbitration process. In addition to court challenges to preliminary jurisdictional decisions by arbitrators and court applications to annul awards or prevent enforcement, a number of other court actions also raise relationship issues. This blog is concerned with scenarios such as commencement…

Arbitrator Intelligence, Arbitrators

(Bocconi University)/ /1 Comment
Arbitrator Intelligence

In virtually every sector of modern business, data is enhancing if not replacing intuition as the basis for making decisions. This trend holds even for assessments as seemingly subjective and rarified as predicting the quality—and hence price—of an exquisite French Bordeaux. In selecting international arbitrators, however, intuition still predominates. For example, a recent industry survey…

Asia-Pacific, Japan, Trans-Pacific Partnership, Treaty

(Waseda University)/ /2 Comments

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) was signed by 11 of the original TPP Partners on 8 March 2018 in Santiago, Chile. After the United States announced its withdrawal from the original TPP on 23 January 2017,1) The announcement made it clear that the United States was not ‘obliged to refrain from…

Arbitration Proceedings, Powers of the tribunal, time-limits

(Paxus LLP)/ /1 Comment

  What Causes Inter-Institutional Variations in the Duration of the Arbitration Process? A significant advantage that arbitration has over litigation is the speed with which proceedings are conducted. The duration of an arbitration, i.e. the time from the date of receipt of the Request for Arbitration to the date of release of the final award,…

Ethics, Security for Costs, Third party funding

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The Task Force’s 2018 Report on Third-Party Funding has finally been released. Here are comments on eight of the most interesting points.   Third-party funding involves an entity, with no prior interest in the legal dispute, providing financing to one of the parties.   One of the trickiest issues regarding third-party funding (TPF) has been defining…

Cyprus, occupation, Oil & Gas, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine

(Bottega Di Bella)/ /Leave a comment

This post navigates the possibility of expanding the protection of a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) to foreign investments made in the territory of a country, which is partially occupied by the State that is a Contracting Party to that BIT. By taking into account a real-life situation – which may result into an investment arbitration…

Journal of International Arbitration

(WilmerHale & Queen Mary University of London)/ /Leave a comment

We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions:   Philippe Cavalieros & Janet (Hyun Jeong) Kim, Emergency Arbitrators Versus the Courts: From Concurrent Jurisdiction to Practical Considerations The 10 November 2017 Dublin International Arbitration Day, organized by Arbitration Ireland, had an entire…

Court of Arbitration for Sport, Independence, Sport arbitration, Switzerland

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In a recent case, the Swiss Federal Tribunal (“SFT”) has once again been called to consider the question of independence of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (“CAS”) vis-à-vis its funders and users. This note introduces the issue of funding and independence of CAS in the context of the SFT’s prior case law and discusses…

Brexit, empirical data, Queen Mary- White & Case Survey, Seat of the arbitration

(White & Case LLP) and (White & Case)/ /Leave a comment

The results of the 2018 Queen Mary/White & Case International Arbitration Survey were launched on 9 May 2018. The survey explores “The Evolution of International Arbitration”: how international arbitration has evolved, the key areas for development in the future, and who and what will shape the future evolution of the field. This is the 4th survey…

Arbitration, Summary Judgment, Summary procedure, United States

(Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP)/ /1 Comment
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP

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…

Ethics, Hong Kong, Singapore, Third party funding

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Hot on the heels of Singapore’s liberalising third party funding (TPF) for arbitration, Hong Kong followed with similar legislation. Keen to ensure the new regime works, the Singapore Ministry of Law is already seeking feedback on whether cases are being funded, businesses are benefiting from the liberalisation, and whether to expand third party funding.1) Singapore…

Achmea, Arbitration, Arbitration Awards, BIT, Enforcement, European Law, European Union, International arbitration, Intra-EU BITs, Investment Arbitration, New York Convention

(Albright StoneBridge Group)/ /Leave a comment

The world after the  Achmea v Slovakia decision focuses on the question about the future of ISDS in relation to intra-EU BITs. At the ASIL conference on the 6 April 2018, a representative of the EU observed the decision in the Achmea case as one that was perhaps a natural consequence of the intricacies of…

Arbitration, Diversity, The Pledge

(School of International Arbitration, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) )/ /Leave a comment

Back in the early 20th century, the business community created arbitration with the aim of offering an alternative to the perceived inadequacies of state courts in dealing with foreign parties, law, and claims. At the time, cases and claims were characterised by European, Mediterranean, and American elements. As a result, the arbitration community was described…

Achmea, European Court of Human Rights, European Law, European Union

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Linklaters

As it has been extensively discussed on this blog, in its landmark Achmea case the Court of Justice of the EU (“CJEU”) found the arbitration provision of the bilateral investment treaty (“BIT”) between the Netherlands and Slovakia to be incompatible with EU law. This decision potentially affects the effectiveness of the roughly 200 BITs concluded…

Code of Ethics, Evidence, Germany, Greece, IBA, IBA Rules of Evidence, Privilege, Switzerland

(Shehata & Partners, Maastricht University)/ /1 Comment

The concept of attorney-client privilege is a unique creation of common-law jurisdictions which has influenced all types of legal regimes over the world. Common-law regimes developed such a concept to curb the wide sphere of document production and discovery in litigation. As the name of the concept entails, it was created as a privilege for…

empirical data, Institutional Arbitration, Queen Mary- White & Case Survey, Seat of the arbitration

(General Editor International Journal of Arbitration, Mediation and Dispute Management; Queen Mary University of London) and (Queen Mary University of London)/ /2 Comments

            On 9 May 2018, the School of International Arbitration at Queen Mary University of London, in partnership with White & Case LLP, launched the Report of the 2018 Queen Mary/White & Case International Arbitration Survey: The Evolution of International Arbitration. As its title suggests, the survey sought to assess…

Arbitration, Arbitration Awards, Brussels Regulation, Enforcement, English courts, English Law, European Law, New York Convention

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The Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters of 27 September 1968 was superseded by Council Regulation (EC) 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters. The latter was subsequently repealed by Regulation (EU) 1215/2012 of the…

Kluwer Mediation Blog, Mediation, Mediation Act, Negotiation

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

In April we welcomed two new regular writers to the blog: Rick Weiler from Canada and Alan Limbury from Australia. The usual breadth of posts continued last month with posts from writers in New Zealand, Germany, Singapore, Romania, Scotland, the UK, Canada and Australia. A brief summary of each of last month’s posts appears below….

Evidence, IBA Rules of Evidence, Singapore

(Clifford Chance Asia) and (Clifford Chance)/ /Leave a comment

The Singapore High Court in BQP v BQQ [2018] SGHC 55 (judgment rendered on 14 March 2018) (the “Judgment”) dismissed a challenge against an arbitration tribunal’s award on jurisdiction and in so doing confirmed that where parties have agreed that the tribunal shall determine the relevance, materiality, and admissibility of all evidence, the tribunal would…

Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Blockchain

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Until a few decades ago, international arbitration was perceived to be a quick and inexpensive way of resolving disputes. However, the proliferation of legal rules, the disclosure of voluminous documents, complex technical evidence and over-lawyering have, to a large extent, hollowed that boast and made it appear somewhat of an urban myth. Quite recently though,…

Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Proceedings, Arbitrators, Enforcement, Expedited arbitration, International arbitration, Party autonomy

, (Gujarat National Law University)/ /3 Comments

The ICC Rules introduced expedited procedure with effect from March 01, 2017. With this, the ICC joined the league of other leading arbitration institutions such as SIAC, LCIA and HKIAC who had already incorporated expedited procedure. Courts across the globe have delivered uniform decisions, views in interpreting party autonomy except for a decision by the…