Arbitration, Energy, Energy Charter Treaty, Intra-EU BITs, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection

(Bottega Di Bella)/ /Leave a comment

Currently, several dozen arbitral claims have been lodged by investors from an EU Member-State against another EU Member-State based on the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). These so-called intra-EU ECT-based arbitrations seem to be increasing, despite attempts by the European Commission to halt them. So far, neither the Respondent-States nor the Commission (as amicus curiae) have…

Arbitration, Investment Arbitration, ISDS, Third party funding

(Durham Law School) and (Roschier Attorneys, Ltd.)/ /1 Comment

Third-party funding remains a hot topic in arbitration, which is understandable considering its complexity and that its accompanying issues often have major implications for arbitral procedure. This fall, the ICCA-Queen Mary Task Force on third-party funding in international arbitration released its “draft,” touching upon a number of contemporary issues vis-á-vis third-party funding, all of which…

Energy Charter Treaty, Investment, Investment protection, Investor

(Bottega Di Bella)/ /Leave a comment

In an interesting post published on Kluwer Arbitration Blog by Eric Leikin and Martina Magnarelli, it is described in a very comprehensive manner the state of play as regards the soundness of Respondents and European Commission’s arguments refusing the jurisdiction of arbitral tribunals in intra-EU ECT claims. Among these arguments (all rejected by the tribunal…

Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Enforcement, Human Rights, International arbitration, International Courts

, , , , (Working Group on International Arbitration of Business and Human Rights) and (University of Michigan Law School)/ /1 Comment

International arbitration is taking a giant step forward as part of the global movement to protect human rights. A drafting team, with expertise in international investment, arbitration, human rights, supply chains and other issues, is being assembled to prepare a set of rules. The project is the culmination of several years of work exploring the…

CIS, LCIA Arbitration, Public Policy, Russia

(British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL))/ /Leave a comment

Over the last years, European arbitration institutions show the increasing number of arbitration cases involving Russian and other former Soviet Union countries, most of which are members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Russian parties were second only to local Swedish companies appearing before the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC)….

Independence and Impartiality, India, neutrality

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It is a fundamental principle in international arbitration that every arbitrator must be and remain independent and impartial of the parties and the dispute The issue of arbitrator independence, impartiality and neutrality has been a frequent source of contention in India. It is particularly rampant in disputes arising out of contracts executed before the amendment…

Kluwer Mediation Blog, Mediation

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

With reviews of new mediation laws in Ireland and Vietnam, an assessment of how well Barnier and Davis are performing as negotiators in the crucial and complex Brexit negotiations, and highlights from Collaborative Scotland’s bus tour which took the message of mediation across Scotland, October has offered an engaging variety of posts on the Kluwer…

Arbitration, Double taxation, European Union

(Temple Tax Chambers; King’s College London)/ /Leave a comment

Adoption of the EU Council Directive on Tax Dispute Resolution Mechanisms in the European Union on 10 October 2017 is a milestone in international tax dispute resolution. The Directive offers a uniform mechanism to address tax treaty disputes among EU member states that meets the BEPS Action 14 minimum standard, and largely renders the arbitration option in…

Anti-Money Laundering, Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, arbitrators’ conduct, Counsel, Counsel conduct, Germany, New York Convention, Public Policy

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

In June 2017, the Fourth European Anti-Money Laundering Directive (the “Fourth EU Directive” (EU) 2015/849) was transposed into German law. The regime was further tightened, its scope was extended and new features, such as the transparency register, were introduced. With the fifth European Anti-Money Laundering Directive already on the horizon, more changes are to come….

Class arbitration, Energy, Investment protection, Investor, Israel

(Meitar Law Offices)/ /Leave a comment

A. Introduction Investments in a foreign country entail risks for the investors. These include the possibility that their investments will be nationalized or expropriated if, for example, a political change occurs. There is also a risk of loss as a result of war, armed conflict, revolution, a state of national emergency, etc. However, on 29…

Arbitration, Austria, Class arbitration, European Law, European Union

(Schoenherr)/ /Leave a comment
Schoenherr

The development of effective instruments for collective redress is a widely discussed topic among European politicians, consumer protectors, legal scholars and dispute resolution lawyers. The professional discourse was recently fuelled by the Volkswagen emission scandal (also referred to as “emissiongate” or “dieselgate”), which, at least in the US, was already subject to collective actions. Another…

Arbitration, Calvo Doctrine, ISDS, NAFTA, United States, USMCA

(Richard Levin Arbitration)/ /Leave a comment

After the US election, it was a certainty that in my inbox every morning there was at least one, if not more, email with a discussion on the future of arbitration in our changing society today. And this debate has continued in halls of university law schools to GAR events to law firm seminars. I…

Arbitration, Arbitration Act, Italy

, , (BonelliErede)/ /Leave a comment

The long-yearned for reform of the Arbitration Act has finally gotten off the starting block. An ad hoc commission has submitted its reform proposal (Proposal), to the scrutiny of the Ministry of Justice (for the full text of the Proposal see here; see also Guido Alpa et al., Un progetto di riforma delle ADR, Jovene,…

Diversity, ICSID, ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, The Pledge

(Richmond School of Law)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

On 15 September 2017, the Chairman of the Administrative Council of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) designated new members to the Panel of Arbitrators and the Panel of Conciliators. This is momentous. For the first time, the lists contain an equal number of female and male members, and a geographical diversity…

Arbitral Award, Arbitration, New Zealand, Reasoned Awards, Reasoning

(Shortland Chambers, New Zealand)/ /1 Comment

Last year I posted on the New Zealand High Court’s decision in Ngāti Hurungaterangi & Ors v Ngāti Wahiao [2016] NZHC 1486. The High Court rejected the plaintiffs’ claim that an arbitral award was inadequately reasoned and should be set aside. The Court described the panel’s reasoning as “undeniably sparse” but held by a “fine…

Uncategorized

(University of Macau)/ /Leave a comment

On 20th November 2017, the II Oxford Symposium on Comparative International Commercial Arbitration will take place at Wolfson College – University of Oxford. This conference brings together specialists from the Americas and Europe to discuss key issues in international commercial arbitration from a comparative perspective. This year we again have a particularly strong set of…

Arbitration, Cryptocurrency, Investment

(King & Spalding) and (Allen & Overy)/ /2 Comments
Three Crowns LLP

Cryptocurrency is a term that is becoming increasingly familiar. But how many of us have considered its implications for the world we live in—let alone for the practice of international arbitration? Cryptocurrencies—essentially digital cash—and the blockchain technology on which they are built, have the potential to revolutionise the way funds are raised, traded and stored….

Argentina

(Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Argentina’s Arbitration Legal Reform: Steps in the Right Direction? Argentina is arguably one of the countries with the most untapped economic potential worldwide. Argentina’s government, led by President Mauricio Macri, is trying to change that. Together with undertaking economic and political reforms aiming at stimulating private investment, the Argentine government is pushing for an exhaustive…

Arbitration, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Treaty

(Herbert Smith Freehills)/ /1 Comment
Herbert Smith Freehills

The international economic order is today bound together through a network of bilateral (and multilateral) investment treaties which provide investors with a variety of protections. Such Bilateral investment treaties (“BITs”) are a relatively young species dating back to 1959’s Pakistan-Federal Republic of Germany BIT. While the exact content of BITs varies by agreement, most contain…

BIT, Denunciation, Ecuador, ICSID Arbitration, Latin America, South America

(Locke Lord LLP)/ /Leave a comment

This post is the conclusion of a two-part publication regarding the situation of investors in Ecuador vis-á-vis the country’s efforts to elude the substantive and procedural protections afforded by investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). The first part consisted of a review of the law applicable to entering and withdrawing from the International Centre for Settlement of…

Arbitration, Arbitration institution, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Asia, Asia-Pacific, Australia, Dispute Resolution

(Corrs Chambers Westgarth)/ /1 Comment
Young ICCA

Overview In 2015, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria highlighted the importance of positioning Australia as one of the next significant regional commercial hubs. Her Honour reiterated this position in a 2017 speech. Interestingly, similar, yet more subtle, comments were featured in a speech in 2009. Other Australian courts have made similar…

Arbitration, Intellectual Property, Intellectual Property Rights

(Gary Benton Arbitration)/ /1 Comment

A recently released study on technology sector dispute resolution highlights significant distinctions in the sector’s perceptions of US domestic and international arbitration. The study conducted by the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center (SVAMC), a non-profit educational foundation based in Palo Alto, California, was directed to understanding technology sector views regarding litigation and arbitration. The…

Arbitration, Surveys

(White & Case LLP) and (White & Case)/

White & Case LLP and the School of International Arbitration at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) are partnering once again to carry out cutting-edge empirical research in the field of international arbitration, with the launch of the 2018 International Arbitration Survey. International arbitration is the natural choice for resolving business disputes because it is…

Arbitration, Cost allocation mechanisms, Costs, Costs in arbitral proceedings

(rothorn legal) and (Wenger & Vieli)/ /4 Comments

When ABBA launched “The Winner Takes It All” in 1980, modern arbitration was still in its infancy. The ICC case numbers were just about to become four-digit, while the cases administered by ICSID could still be counted on two hands. Yet already at that time, “The Winner Takes It All” exemplified one of the two…