The process of document production in international arbitration is important. Documentary evidence is often the primary category of evidence; and legal costs associated with it tend to constitute a significant proportion of the overall costs of arbitral proceedings. Document production may also be one of the very reasons why arbitration has been preferred over litigation….
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has enforced a P&I Club’s internal claims appeal process as a legally binding alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) method, rejecting allegations brought by one the Club’s Members that the procedure was “fundamentally unfair.” TransAtlantic Lines LLC v. Am. Steamship Owners Mut. Prot. & Indemn. Ass’n,…
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” (Anaïs Nin) Introduction and background On 12 July 2017, CMS Hong Kong and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) hosted the fourth joint lecture in their quarterly series focusing on the…
The below continues and concludes a two-part post about the Spanish renewable energy cases which have been concluded to date, in particular, the apparently contradictory Eiser and Isolux awards, the former of which was decided in May 2017 and the latter, which (although decided in July 2016) only became public in June 2017. Part I…
In furtherance of European and national policy directives, Spain enacted in the early years of this century a series of decrees to regulate the production of electricity from renewable sources and provide incentives to producers. In particular, by Royal Decree 661/2007, a generous, production-based remuneration subsidy in the form of a feed-in-tariff (FIT) was put…
The last 40 years or so has experienced increased growth in the number of transactions concluded internationally, departing from classical one-shot contracts such as the simple sale of goods contract. These complex contracts involve in many instances a mix of private and public issues as is seen in regulatory sectors (telecommunications, oil and gas). The…
Whether inside or outside the practice of international commercial arbitration, it does not take long to look at the list of the most popular seats for such arbitrations and wonder – where on earth is California? As the sixth largest economy, complete with some of the most significant business centers in the world while operating…
India has long been regarded as an unappealing centre for arbitration – be it as the seat of arbitration or as the place of final enforcement of the arbitral award. Indian judiciary is often quoted to be over interfering in matters of arbitration and enforcement. If fact could replace fiction, in the last decade, Shylock…
In a judgment of 24 May 2017 (Biogaran v International Drug Development, case n° 15-25.457), the commercial chamber of the French Cour de Cassation (Supreme Court) considered the question of whether a counterclaimant is bound by the requirements of a “multi-tier” dispute resolution clause. The clause in question required the parties to mediate as a…
A recent decision of the Seoul Central District Court provided guidance as to when a party should be considered to have waived its right to object to instances of non-compliance in arbitration proceedings. This post provides a summary of the Court’s judgment case and considers the possible ramifications of the Court’s reasoning for parties involved…
Firms will often write that for effective representation it is best to engage law firms at an early stage in the dispute process. Whilst there may be some merit in this, it may not necessarily be entirely true. It is evident that in-house roles are not what they were initially thought to be. In house…
The Hungarian Parliament recently passed new legislation on arbitration (Act LX of 2017 on Arbitration, the “2017 Act”) that will reform Hungarian arbitration law as of 1 January 2018. The 2017 Act, considering both the shortcomings of the current Hungarian legislation (Act LXXI of 1994 on Arbitration, the “1994 Act”) and the amendment of the…
On the very same day that U.S President Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Stockholm Treaty Lab Prize opened for registration. An initiative of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC), this global innovation contest aims to crowdsource a model treaty…
In the middle of uncertainty over the economic implications of a European Union without Britain and against a continuing rise in the popularity of arbitration as an avenue for redress by corporate investors, a round-table discussion at a chambers on third-party funding of disputes on Tuesday 12 July 2017 could not have come at a…
The Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) recently adopted a new law permitting the third party funding of arbitration. This comes as a welcome development, bringing Hong Kong into line with other common law jurisdictions and ensuring that it keeps pace with its international rivals. It also strengthens the position of the Hong Kong International Arbitration…
So called “emergency arbitration” is raising considerable interest among international arbitration practitioners, as the importance of this tool aimed at protecting the parties’ rights either during the period between the filing of an arbitration request and the constitution of the arbitral tribunal or in the course of the proceedings, before the award is rendered, is…
In an interview given to the Paris Review in 1981, Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez observed that “Caribbean reality resembles the wildest imagination.” This myth (or reality) of the Caribbean as a wild region declines into various aspects such as its unsettled climate, ruthless history, or multicultural society. This might explain, on top of their…
For a long time, Brazil remained one of the few main economies without foreign investment agreements – in the 1990s, 14 Bilateral Investment Treaties (“BITs”) were signed, but never ratified. This landscape began to change in 2015, with the emergence of the model Agreement on Cooperation and Facilitation of Investments (“ACFI”), promoted by the Brazilian…
Businesses that are party to an arbitration agreement governed by Nevada law should understand that a little-known Nevada statute renders these agreements unenforceable if a contract lacks so-called “specific authorization” indicating that a person affirmatively assented to the arbitration provision itself. While the Nevada Supreme Court has applied this rule to invalidate arbitration agreements, a…
In June 2014, at the ITA Workshop in Dallas, I heard a passionate woman presenting her mission of increasing fairness, transparency, accountability, and diversity in the arbitrator selection process, and how she intended to do this. “I want to support this” is what I thought. Roger Alford was so kind to introduce me to this…
From the mediation of sports disputes to a recent mediation law in Brazil and onto lessons learnt from teaching mediation and negotiation courses in universities in Germany and New Zealand, the past month on the Kluwer Mediation Blog has provided a rich assortment of posts. A short summary of each post follows. In Investing In…
Who Should Regulate the International Bar? The regulation of professional ethics of the international bar is among the most hotly debated issues in international arbitration (inter-state, investor-state, and commercial). It reflects the regulatory gap that has developed as proceedings before international courts and tribunals have proliferated and counsel diversified. Addressing this issue is crucial, as…
On May 30, 2017, Volterra Fietta and the University of Notre Dame hosted a debate of whether foreign investors can sue the United Kingdom for a hard Brexit. The recorded video is now available for viewing. Markus Burgstaller and I presented the case that foreign investors may have viable claims against the UK, while Jeremy…
Mark Twain once wrote that a person with a new idea “is a crank until the idea succeeds.”1)Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar, in Following the Equator (1897). The Merriam Webster dictionary defines “crank” as “an annoyingly eccentric person.” Innovations and new ideas on the verge of implementation seem to arrive almost weekly in international arbitration. They…
