Juliane Kokott, Advocate General to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), gave the 2016 Mackenzie-Stuart Lecture on 26 February 2016 at the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Law. In her lecture, Ms. Kokott explored the conflicts between investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) and European Union (EU) law, as regards (1) conflicts between…
In a blog earlier this year (see here), I reported on the emergence of the Abu Dhabi Global Market, in shorthand ADGM, as a free zone seat of arbitration in its own right, offering a viable alternative to seating an arbitration in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). To recap, choice of the ADGM as…
Prior to the amendment of the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 (“the Act”), India’s journey towards becoming an international commercial hub that could rival Singapore and London was hampered by a largely ineffective Act and an arbitration regime that was afflicted with various problems including those of high costs and delays. To address these…
and Jose Luis Repetto Deville, Miranda & Amado Recently, the First Commercial Chamber of the Superior Court of Lima issued an annulment decision in the case MDIS v. CORAL. The court had to deal with an arbitral award rendered by two arbitrators that had been challenged (without the participation of the other arbitrator) and while…
In December 2015, the Brazilian Judiciary faced, for the first time, the question as to whether a foreign arbitral award annulled by the Judiciary at the arbitration seat could be granted recognition. Specifically, in EDF International S/A v. Endesa LatinoAmérica S/A & YPF S/A (SEC No. 5.782/AR), the EDF International S/A corporation (“EDFI”) commenced arbitration…
In a recent ruling of the DIFC Court of Appeal (CA 007/2015 – DNB Bank ASA v. (1) Gulf Eyadah Corporation (2) Gulf Navigation Holdings PJSC, ruling of the DIFC Court of Appeal of 25 February 2016), Chief Justice Michael Hwang, Justice Sir David Steel and H.E. Justice Omar Al Muhairi took the opportunity to…
International investment law and investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) are at a historic juncture as the United States and the European Union (EU) have started to address the content and contours of the investment chapter in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) in the latest negotiation round that took place in Brussels the last week…
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and should not be regarded as representative of, or binding upon ArbitralWomen and/or the author’s law firm. 1)Ayça Aydın is an associate of Çetinel Law Firm, based in Istanbul and she is the Chair of Young Istanbul Arbitration Centre. Her areas of practice…
Wide interpretation of a non-arbitrability exception may frustrate the purpose of promoting international commercial arbitration. So far, Russian courts have not been able to formulate a clear cut and consistent rule on the arbitrability of disputes with a public element, in particular disputes arising from agreements concluded under public procurement schemes. Russian law as it…
Introduction The Privy Council, the final Court of Appeal for a considerable number of current and former Commonwealth countries and British Overseas Territories, has recently given a judgment of wide interest to arbitration practitioners and those looking to draft arbitration clauses in their agreements. In January this year, the Privy Council found in Anzen Limited…
Introduction Dan Cake, a Portuguese company and one of the biggest biscuit producers in the world, invested in Hungary by acquiring a Hungarian company’s shares, later named as Danesita. Although Dan Cake had envisaged the expansion of its business to South East Europe too through this investment, after a couple of years, the plan failed…
In recent years, ICSID has provided an increasing level of detail and transparency about the practice and procedure of ICSID Convention and ICSID Additional Facility arbitrations. The ICSID Secretariat has done so in a variety of ways: on its website, in Annual Reports, in The ICSID Caseload: Statistics, as well as in one-day primers it…
On 19 June 2015, the Armenian Parliament adopted a package of laws related to arbitration. This was the first arbitration reform since the adoption of the Law on Commercial Arbitration (“Law”) in December 2006. The law package came into force on 7 July 2015. One of the reasons for the reform was the need for…
The United States (“US”) and European Union (“EU”) demonstrate major differences in relation to consumer arbitration. In December 2015, the US Supreme Court rendered a judgment in Direct, Inc. v. Imburgia et al., an important precedent for consumer arbitration, which may make the law of these two jurisdictions diverge even further. This blog post discusses…
The arbitration of patent disputes is on the rise. This is not only because patent litigation has been subject to criticism on multiple grounds, but also because arbitration offers several distinct advantages. In an effort to further explore this growth field, the Georgetown International Arbitration Society hosted a panel on the subject as a part…
On 17 December 2015, the website of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) announced that the Arbitral Tribunal in the Philip Morris Asia Limited (Hong Kong) v. The Commonwealth of Australia case has issued an Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility of the case. While the award has not yet been published – pending the redaction…
In October 2015, during an official visit to the United States, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, announced that Indonesia intended to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Jokowi’s plan immediately ran into political opposition at home, including from within the ranks of his own Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). The Government, however, appears determined to follow…
An arbitration can be severely disrupted by a party who refuses to comply with an order or direction of its tribunal. In such circumstances, a peremptory order may be used to force the non-compliant party to comply with the earlier order or direction within a specific timeframe. An arbitral tribunal’s peremptory order was recently enforced…
Most arbitration agreements in the international realm require arbitrators to produce a “reasoned” or “fully reasoned” award. However, relatively little has been written on why such awards are necessary and what constitutes a reasoned award in a legal regime that includes elements of both the common and civil law. On one level, the question of…
The last several years have witnessed a tremendous increase in the participation of third-party funders in international arbitration. A growing number of claimants are seeking external funding, either because they lack the necessary funds to commence arbitration proceedings (which are becoming increasingly more expensive) or because they want to maintain cash-flow and offset the risk…
An extension of arbitration agreements to non-signatories has been a much discussed topic, also on this blog. Here is an insight from Croatian courts: In a judgment issued on 2 September 2014 (VSRH Revt-321/2013-2), the Croatian Supreme Court [“Court”] set aside an arbitral award rendered by the Permanent Arbitration Court at the Croatian Chamber of…
Co-authored with Tsvetelina Georgieva, Dimitrov, Petrov & Co. The identification of the seat of arbitration is undisputedly one of the most important features of an arbitration clause, as it determines lex arbitri and, consequently, which courts will have supervisory jurisdiction over the arbitration. According to Bulgarian law, the choice of seat of arbitration may also predetermine the…
In my last post, I pointed out the inconsistencies of the Italian judicial system. Italy has a court system that is indisputedly overloaded (and, as a consequence, inefficient); yet the most obvious solution to this problem, International Arbitration, is rarely used by companies or private individuals to resolve their disputes. In my view this happens…
2015 was an eventful year in Hong Kong arbitration. The Hong-Kong based institutions shepherded through several reforms, the local courts issued several pro-arbitration decisions, and a long-awaited Law Reform Commission paper opened the door to third-party funding for arbitration. Third party funding for arbitration in Hong Kong Readers will be aware of the increasing popularity…
