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(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

In a sequence of recent rulings starting in 2015, the Dubai Courts have confirmed that the doctrine of apparent authority does, after all, find application to the formation of arbitration agreements. The former prevailing position was that apparent authority did not have a place in arbitration, which requires a special – rather than just a…

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(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

With the beginning of a new year, it is time for a look at arbitration developments in the UAE that have gone unnoticed (or at least unreported) over the course of 2016. As the readership of this Blog will be aware, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have developed into one of the most fecund arbitration…

ICC Commission Report on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration, Islamic Finance Disputes, Shari‘a

(Hogan Lovells) and (Zulficar & Partners)/ /Leave a comment
Hogan Lovells

The Workstream on Arbitration of Islamic Finance Disputes was tasked with looking at whether the development of specific rules and the development of a comprehensive so-called lex Islamica and procedures for Islamic Finance would encourage the use of arbitration in resolving Islamic Finance Disputes. The Workstream’s Report proposes a list of recommendations that the ICC…

BIT, Compensation for Moral Damages, International Law, Investment Arbitration

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YIAG

Lundin Tunisia B. V. v. Republic of Tunisia is a case that very little information was (and, in many ways, still is) available about until very recently. In November 2016, excerpts from the award (in French), itself dated December 22, 2015, became available on the ICSID website. The published excerpts give very limited information on…

Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Enforcement, Expert evidence, Experts, Public Policy

, (Kolcuoglu Demirkan Kocaklı Attorney Partnership)/ /Leave a comment

An arbitration-friendly decision was rendered by the 11th Civil Chamber of the Turkish Court of Appeals (“Court of Appeals”) on 22 June 2016 [File no. 2016/4931, Decision no. 2016/6886]. The decision deals with the question as to whether the arbitral tribunal’s failure to refer the calculation of damages to experts constitutes a violation of public…

Arbitral Award, Arbitration, ICSID Arbitration, Investment Arbitration, Res Judicata

(International Moot Court Competition Association (IMCCA))/ /Leave a comment

Co-authored with Ivaylo Dimitrov, George Washington University Law School Foreword A recent award rendered in the case of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited v. Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO) (ARB/10/20, Award, 12 September 2016) (hereinafter: “SCB HK v. TANESCO”) seems to put an end to a dispute which had sparked lately relating to an arbitral…

Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Energy Charter Treaty, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor

(University of Aberdeen)/ /Leave a comment

Bosnia and Herzegovina (“BiH”) is generally perceived as a good emerging market for investment. The country is rich with natural resources and has a long tradition of industry with favorable and attractive locations and resources. Potential areas of investment include banking and finance, energy and mining, construction and IT (ICT) sector. The relevant national framework…

Arbitration, Germany, International arbitration, Investment Arbitration, Legitimate Expectations

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Criticism of the Investor State Dispute Settlement (“ISDS”) system is common these days. Protesters demonstrate against “secretive tribunals of highly paid corporate lawyers” as which the mainstream media increasingly portray arbitral tribunals. (“Investor-state dispute settlement – the arbitration game”, The Economist, 11 October 2014) A Controversial Doctrine Central to the general public’s opposition to ISDS…

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

, (AnJie Law Firm)/ /Leave a comment

SIAC released new rules of procedure (“SIAC Rules”) for the management of its arbitration practice, effective 1 August, 2016. Some of the new provisions are ground-breaking. New provisions include a consolidation procedure, a joinder procedure, and even rules providing for early dismissal of baseless claims. The SIAC Rules have drawn great attention to its numerous…

Court of Arbitration for Sport, Sport arbitration

(Guandalini Sampaio Advogados) and (Salusse, Marangoni, Parente e Jabur Advogados)/ /Leave a comment

2016 was a great year for Brazil, especially because it hosted the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, which has brought many good things: thousands of sports enthusiasts came to Rio de Janeiro to see high profile athletes; others just came for a good caipirinha on the Copacabana Beach; and, of course, many athletes from different countries…

Arbitration, Australia, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor

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On 30 November, Australia’s Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) released its Report 165 on its inquiry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). JSCOT is a 16-member parliamentary committee tasked with advising the Australian parliament on ratification of treaties. This article presents an overview and discussion of the Report’s findings on ISDS, the most common…

Arbitration Agreement, India, Law governing the arbitration agreement

(Clifford Chance), , and (Clifford Chance Asia)/ /1 Comment

Traditionally, arbitration agreements do not designate the law governing the arbitration agreement. In BCY v BCZ [2016] SGHC 249 (“BCY v. BCZ“), the Singapore High Court clarified the position in relation to the law applicable to the arbitration agreement where such choice is absent. In doing so, the High Court differentiated between the situations where…

Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Chile, Dispute Resolution, Dispute Resolution Boards, Italy

(Çetinel Law Firm), (Independent Arbitrator), and (Arbitration Chamber of Milan)/ /1 Comment

On January 1, 2016 the Milan Chamber of Arbitration (“Milan CAM”), issued Rules for Dispute Boards (“Milan Rules”) exactly one year after the Arbitration and Mediation Center of the Santiago Chamber of Commerce (“CAM Santiago”) did so in Chile (“Santiago Rules”). Milan CAM has around 950 mediation filings per year and over 130 arbitration proceedings…

Kluwer Mediation Blog

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

The last month of 2016 offered a compelling collection of posts on the Kluwer Mediation Blog, from the third-party funding of dispute resolution to the value and difficulty of forgiveness. For those of you looking for a New Year’s resolution, you’ll find inspiration in the posts by Greg Bond and John Sturrock (links to which…

Energy, Investment Arbitration

(20 Essex Street)/ /5 Comments

The Paris Agreement does not include an enforcement mechanism.   However, trends show that different actors have been innovative in using different legal mechanisms to address environmental and climate change issues. As noted by the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce in this respect, “[g]reen investors have resorted to international arbitration to resolve disputes related to, among others,…

France, State Immunity

(MIDS Geneva)/ /Leave a comment

The fact that foreign States are normally entitled to immunity from enforcement before national jurisdictions pursuant to customary international law, has always been the stumbling block in the enforcement of arbitral awards against them. In France to the date State immunity from enforcement has been regulated by case law, but a new Bill on transparency,…

Arbitration, Energy Charter Treaty, Expropriation, Germany, Investment Arbitration, Legitimate Expectations

(NL-Investmentconsulting)/ /8 Comments

On 6 December 2016 the German Constitutional Court (GCC) delivered its judgment in the case of Vattenfall and other nuclear power energy companies against Germany. This dispute and final judgment – which have attracted far less attention and criticism from anti-ISDS groups than the Vattenfall dispute currently under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) – provide…

Brazil, BRICS, Fair and Equitable Treatment, India, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, Model BIT, Netherlands

(Lazareff Le Bars)/ /Leave a comment
ArbitralWomen

Much Ado About India’s Protectionist Model BIT The last week of November 2016 was an eventful and rather paradoxical week for India. While India and Brazil successfully concluded negotiations for a new Bilateral Investment Treaty (“BIT”), the India-Netherlands BIT expired. India has spent the past year refurbishing its investment agreements. According to UNCTAD, India is…

Asset Management, Financial Industry, ICC Commission Report on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration

(Lazareff Le Bars) and (BCH Advogados)/ /Leave a comment

General Considerations In the context of the series of posts dedicated to the Final Report of the ICC Task Force on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration, this post aims at providing a broad picture of the scope, survey and conclusions related to the use of arbitration in disputes involving asset management matters. As a matter…

Advisory Matters, Arbitration, Financial Industry, ICC Commission Report on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration

(Linklaters) and (Linklaters LLP)/ /Leave a comment
Linklaters

Advisory works generally include advisory services rendered by investment banks to their clients in two main areas: M&A (mergers and acquisitions) and equity capital markets. In this context, a financial institution will enter into a various number of agreements, either with its clients (mandate, etc.) or with its counterparty to a transaction where the deal…

Arbitration Agreement, English Arbitration Act, Lex Arbitri, Lex Fori, Separability

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

Introduction It is a key principle in many jurisdictions across the world that arbitration clauses should be separable from the underlying contract in which they are contained. This prevents arbitration clauses from being denuded of their effect, particularly where the contract is void for fraud. However, not all jurisdictions uphold the separability principle. Therefore, in…

Arbitral Award, Austria, Procedure, Public Policy, Reasoning, Set aside an arbitral award

(Schoenherr) and / /Leave a comment
Schoenherr

The decisive underlying reasoning (motifs, Begründung) is, without doubt, an essential part of any arbitral award and as such bears the potential of frustrating parties and arbitrators alike. On the one hand, elaborate reasoning in arbitral awards more often than not comes at the price of long waiting periods for the issuance of the awards,…

Financial Industry, ICC Commission Report on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration, International Financing

(White & Case) and (Jeantet)/ /Leave a comment
White & Case

The ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR’s Task Force on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration recently published its ‘Report on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration’ (the “Report”). The undersigned had the honour of leading the work stream on “International Financing” and the findings of that team are summarized in Section IX (International Financing) of the…

ICC Commission Report on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration

(ICC Court of Arbitration) and (AFFAKI)/ /Leave a comment

The new ICC Report on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration finds that the oft-cited financial institutions’ averseness to arbitration, abstractly stated, is incorrect. Financial institutions’ perception of arbitration is rapidly evolving in the wake of the global financial crisis, the sovereign debt crisis, the digitalization of banking, and the new regulatory approach to bank resolution….