China, Emergency Arbitrator

(Zhong Lun Law Firm)/ /1 Comment

Last year, I was appointed by Beijing Arbitration Commission (“BAC”) as the emergency arbitrator in an emergency arbitrator proceeding (“EA proceeding”), the first EA proceeding ever requested by the claimant in mainland China. Since the entire arbitration procedure has recently been concluded, I am delighted to share some of my thoughts on how to conduct…

Commercial Arbitration, Construction arbitration, Dispute, Goverment Procurement, Investment Arbitration, Prevention, regulation, WTO

(TILPA - INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INVESTMENT LAW)/ /Leave a comment

This is one of the five construction arbitration posts, providing the technical discussion from the SCAI, CAM, TILPA conference in Geneva and Mexico City.  The authors include: Ms Almudena Otero De La Vega (on State enterprises) Ms Tanya Landon & Ms Azal Khan (on evidence), Dr Manuel Arrollo (on multiple procedures), Mr Serge Y. Bodart…

Applicable Law, Appointment of arbitrators, Blockchain, Confidentiality, Contract Drafting, New York Convention, Seat of the arbitration

(Shehata & Partners, Maastricht University)/ /2 Comments

This post, which continues the topic considered here and here, discusses the main issues to consider when choosing arbitration to resolve smart contracts disputes, and lists a number of red flags that emerge from a survey of white papers on arbitrating smart contract disputes prepared by the tech community. (1) The Form of Smart Contract…

Arbitral seat, Arbitration, United States

(Musick, Peeler & Garrett LLP)/ /4 Comments

“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…

Arbitration Awards, Awards, natural resources, Public Policy, specific performance

(Al Tamimi & Company)/ /Leave a comment

In 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), the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (“District Court”) refused to stay the enforcement of a foreign arbitral award that ordered the Indian Government (“India”) to reinstate an…

Blockchain, Contract Drafting

(Shehata & Partners, Maastricht University)/ /Leave a comment

Following up on a previous post, this post provides a number of recommendations for the future landscape of smart contracts. (1) Un-Anonymizing the Identity of the Parties to Smart Contracts: From a purely legal perspective, having a contract entered into by pseudonymous parties raises more than one question. First and foremost, how would one be…

Awards, China, Courts, HKIAC, Interim measures, Uncategorized

(Fangda Partners)/ /Leave a comment
HK45

Under the current Chinese legal framework, while PRC Courts are granted exclusive power to grant interim relief measures in support of arbitration 1) Chinese courts are granted the exclusive power to grant interim relief measures pursuant to the following provisions under PRC law: Article 28 of the PRC Arbitration Law (hereinafter “Arbitration Law”) provides that:…

Arbitration, Australia, Confidentiality

and (Herbert Smith Freehills LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Australia has been known for taking a somewhat controversial approach to the confidentiality of arbitral proceedings. However, the legislature, to the international arbitration community’s sigh of relief, has intervened to change the law and bring opt-out confidentiality to international commercial arbitrations seated in Australia (see Michael Pryles, ‘National Report – Australia’ in The ICCA International…

Annulment, Arbitration Act, Argentina, UNCITRAL Model Law

(M & M Bomchil)/ /Leave a comment

In what should be deemed as an authentic legislative milestone, on July 4, 2018 the Argentine House of Representatives approved the International Commercial Arbitration bill (previously passed by the Senate in 2017). The bill became a law and entered into force as Act 27,449 after its publication in the Official Gazette on July 26, 2018….

Blockchain, Contract Drafting

(Shehata & Partners, Maastricht University)/ /3 Comments

As described by Max I. Raskin, a blockchain is simply a decentralized ledger for recording digital data in a verified time-stamped manner without the need for a trusted third party. Blockchain technology provides, according to Joseph Bambara, et al., more “security, traceability, and transparency of records…as well as lower operational costs.” In this regard, public blockchains are…

Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, ICSID, ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, Investment Arbitration, Mediation, Negotiation

(Albright StoneBridge Group)/ /Leave a comment

In the world of International Arbitration (“IA”), one distinguishes between commercial arbitration and investment arbitration, the latter widely referred to as Investor-State Dispute Settlement or ISDS, as a dispute resolution mechanism based on bilateral treaties, multilateral treaties, and free trade agreements. IA is lauded as the best method for dispute resolution in international trade. This…

Arbitrator Challenges, Arbitrator's mandate, Ethiopia, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal

(Aman Assefa & Associates Law Office)/ /Leave a comment

Arbitration is one of the preferred modes of private dispute settlement. Off its several traits, the cornerstone is the fact that it is based primarily on party autonomy and enables the parties to control almost all aspect of it. On the other hand, States put in place a different review and/or control mechanism on the…

Antitrust arbitration, Arbitration, Competition Law

(Richard Levin Arbitration)/ /Leave a comment

This note will first reflect back thirty three years on the genesis of arbitration and competition matters and the Mitsubishi case, and then, in Part 2 below, I will touch on some practical issues that frequently will arise in a competition case today and how Mitsubishi is still influencing with vigor. As the reader will…

Antitrust arbitration, Arbitration, Competition Law

(Richard Levin Arbitration)/ /Leave a comment

Now that we know the “second look” is not so much a look but a glance, what does this mean for arbitrators in these cases, frequently highly complex disputes infused with economics? In brief, it places a very heavy burden to get it right. The mandatory public policy of competition law which would by contract…

Arbitration Proceedings, IBA, IBA Rules of Evidence, Legal traditions

(Kocur & Partners)/ /Leave a comment

This season the draft Rules on Conduct of the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration (the Prague Rules) are a regularly occurring topic at European arbitration events. In a nutshell, the Prague Rules are a set of rules close to civil law systems, intended to replace the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in…

ASA Bulletin

(Editor in Chief, ASA Bulletin; LALIVE)/ /Leave a comment

We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the ASA Bulletin is now available and includes the following articles and cases:   ARTICLES Felix DASSER, Piotr WÓJTOWICZ, Challenges of Swiss Arbitral Awards. Updated Statistical Data as of 2017 Felix DASSER and Piotr WÓJTOWICZ update previously published statistical data on challenges of international…

Africa, BIT, Conference

(Independent Arbitrator), , (Jeantet), and (Reed Smith)/ /Leave a comment

For AfricArb The evolution of foreign direct investment in the African continent The African continent has been an important recipient of foreign investment for many decades, with a significant rise in such investment being witnessed in the last 15 years. The economic growth, the limitation of regulatory barriers and importantly the high rates of return…

Anti-suit injunction, International arbitration

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The short answer, I submit, is that it does. Nonetheless, there is no shortage of articles and commentaries purporting to explain some of the reasons why court-ordered anti-suit injunctions continue to be prohibited under Regulation (EU) 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and…

Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Proceedings, Enforcement, National Courts, New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards

(Albright StoneBridge Group)/ /1 Comment

The New York Convention’s 60th Anniversary renewed the debate about its future. One must recognize that a treaty that is sixty years old and has been ratified in almost 160 countries can no longer be replaced. Even with compatibility clauses, provisions that would provide for retroactive application and the other tools that the Vienna Convention…

Africa, Arbitral Award, Arbitral seat, Arbitration institution, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Ethiopia, Uncategorized

(Equanimity Arbitration)/ /1 Comment

Five years after filing the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) Case No. 2013-32 under the European Development Fund Arbitration Rules (EDF Rules), the claimant, Consta JV (an Italian contractor), would have hoped for a successful award against the CDE (a joint enterprise between the Ethiopian and Djibouti government) that would be upheld by the local…

Africa, Arbitral Tribunal, Arbitration, Arbitrators, Counsel

(SOAS, University of London)/ /Leave a comment

Diversity in arbitration is currently topical, and this drove our engagement with it in relation to race (particularly African) in this survey. Related to this, is the entrenched perceptions against African arbitration practitioners which has negatively impacted on their participation in international arbitration (including Africa-connected disputes). The primary perception is that African arbitration practitioners are…

Arbitration, ITA, Parallel Proceedings

(Dechert)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

The 30th Annual ITA Workshop on Multiple Proceedings, Multiple Parties, and International Arbitration: What a Tangled Web We Weave, took place in Dallas, Texas on 20-22 June 2018.  Co-chairing were Erica Stein (Dechert), Jean-Christophe Honlet (Dentons), and Frédéric G. Sourgens (Washburn University).  The workshop, a lead event of the ITA, was dedicated to an in-depth…

Achmea, BIT, Termination

, (Hogan Lovells)/ /Leave a comment

On 6 March 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU“) issued its long-awaited decision in the Achmea case (C-284/16) between the Slovak Republic and Dutch insurer Achmea BV. In Achmea, the CJEU found investor-state dispute settlement provisions in investment treaties concluded between EU Member States (“intra-EU BITs“) to be incompatible with EU law….

Admissibility, Criminal law and arbitration, ICSID, ISDS, Jurisdiction

(British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL))/ /1 Comment

Investor-state tribunals frequently face allegations of economic crimes, especially in jurisdictions with a weak rule of law. For instance, the largest ever investor–State award of $50 billion in Yukos v Russian Federation, primarily concerned a criminal investigation of alleged tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement by what was then the largest Russian oil company. The tribunal…