As announced at its Annual Meeting and 29th Workshop in Dallas, the Institute of Transnational Arbitration (ITA) is relaunching our young (under 40) practitioners’ group, now called Young ITA. This new initiative will focus on expanding the global footprint and profile of the group and ITA, and on creating new leadership opportunities for young arbitration…
According to the Doing Business Reports, from 2014 and 2016 Myanmar ameliorated the possibility to enter into business in the country by increasing its rank from 177 to 171. However, this evolution seems to be frozen as shown by the 2017 Report in terms of amelioration. Nonetheless, Myanmar’s government is ready to take a next…
The US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit’s Thai-Lao Lignite (Thailand) v. Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic The friction between a seat and an enforcement forum, i.e. between annulment and enforcement continues. An arbitral award in the Thai-Lao Lignite (Thailand) v. Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic case (“Thai Lao Lignite…
On 29th December 2016, the Government of India constituted a High-Level Committee under the Chairmanship of Mr. Justice B N Srikrishna, Retired Judge, Supreme Court of India. The Committee was constituted pursuant to the Government’s commitment to speedy resolution of commercial disputes and to make India an international hub of arbitration. The terms of reference…
The potential clash between protection of investors under investment treaties and protection of the environment has emerged in a number of recent arbitrations. More than 60 investment disputes filed since 2012 have had some environmental component. Amongst them, there have been several cases in which States have sought to enforce environmental law against investors in…
Introduction The investment solar energy saga triggered by the regulatory reforms in the renewable energy undertaken by Spain and Italy is likely to be the new Black Swan in the investment arbitration world, reaching the importance and controversy of the Argentinian crisis of 2001. In addition, the question whether the ISDS system has learnt the…
ARTICLES SECTION Christopher R. Seppälä, Why Finland should adopt the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration Abstract: This article describes why a small country like Finland, which has excellent natural attributes as a place for arbitration (political neutrality and stability, respect for the rule of law, freedom from corruption and a central location between…
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington has enforced a settlement between a Jones Act seaman and his employer for maintenance and cure payments, pursuant to the 1958 United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the “New York Convention”). Castro v. Tri Marine Fish Co., LLC, 2017…
The law of privilege as relating to in-house counsel (especially in civil law jurisdictions) is indeed a controversial and much debated issue. Well-spoken advocates from the “internal” as well as “external” bar have written and spoken on this this issue forcefully. In reading DLA Piper’s Legal Professional Privilege Global Guide (2017), it is absolutely mind…
As a result of a reform of Mexico’s Constitution, on 25 February 2017 a Presidential Decree was enacted, whereby the Congress received the mandate to pass a new law on Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms (“ADR Law”) in August 2017.[1] For the first time, the right to “access to ADR mechanisms” was recognised at constitutional level,…
It has been ten years since Bolivia denounced the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes Convention (“ICSID Convention”), becoming the first country to withdraw from the ICSID Convention in history. True, several countries have never even signed the ICSID Convention in the first place (including large economies such as Brazil and India), but until…
According to a recent announcement, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Court of Arbitration is set to open a representative office in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), a free zone founded by the Ruler of Abu Dhabi on Al Maryah Island, a man-made island on the shores of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi….
On 1 March 2017 the Austrian Supreme Court (Oberster Gerichtshof) ruled on whether potential claims under the Austrian Commercial Agents Act (Handelsvertretergesetz) can be brought before an Austrian court even if the underlying agency agreement contains an arbitration clause and is governed by the laws of New York (OGH 1.3.2017, 5 Ob 72/16y). The judgment…
As arbitration gains prominence, legislative regimes governing domestic arbitration are fast liberalizing globally, and in some instances, like in South Korea, liberalizing faster than the regime governing international arbitration. The question we consider in this post is whether Contracting Parties to the New York Convention on the Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (“New York Convention”)…
After a few declarations of intention to terminate BITs (see my previous post), Poland put words into actions. On 18 July 2017, the Polish Government submitted to the Sejm (the lower house of Polish Parliament) a draft law (“Draft Law”, available in Polish here) which empowers the Polish President to unilaterally terminate the Agreement on…
Introduction There are over 250 million people who speak Portuguese, being commonly identified as the sixth most spoken language in the world. It is an official dialect in Angola, Brazil, Cabo-Verde, Equatorial-Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal, São-Tomé and Principe and Timor-Leste. Business transactions are entered into daily within a vast territorial space that reaches from…
The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (President) signed the constitutional law “On the Astana International Financial Centre” (Law) on 7 December 2015, which provides a legal framework for the establishment and operation of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC). The launch of the AIFC is part of the President’s “100 Concrete Steps” Plan of…
July saw a collection of thought-provoking and passionate posts from our writers, including the particular challenges of conducting research on mediation, insights from the Global Pound Conference in London and reflections on how little we know about our neighbours. A brief summary of all the posts in July can be found below. In Research on…
Since 1996, commercial arbitration in Lithuania has been regulated by the Law on Commercial Arbitration which was based on the provisions of the 1985 UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration. In 2012, the Lithuanian Parliament revised the Law in accordance with the 2006 amendments to the UNCITRAL Model law. Furthermore, in order to emphasize…
Despite apparent “America First” language in the US Summary of Objectives for the NAFTA renegotiation which appear contrary to the minimum standards of treatment and fair and equitable treatment, those protections are likely to remain in a new NAFTA. On 17 July 2017, the US Trade Representative published the “Summary of Objectives for the NAFTA…
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…
