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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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….
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…
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,…
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…
Introduction In March 2017, Senator Emmanuel Andy Uba introduced the Arbitration and Conciliation Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill (the Bill). While the first reading of the Bill was done at the Nigerian Senate Chambers in March 2017, the second reading of the Bill was not done till April 2017 and only thereafter was it referred…
