A recent ruling of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Court of First Instance (see Case No. XX – (1) X1 (2) X2 v. (1) Y1 (2) Y2, ruling of the DIFC Court of First Instance of 29 July 2015) brings into relief the question as to whether the role of the DIFC Courts as…
In recent years, Russia has become a frequent respondent in investment treaty matters. This is a new development. There are currently at least ten treaty claims pending against Russia, with a number of other disputes threatened. At the same time, Russia is trying to protect its assets against a large-scale enforcement campaign in Europe and…
Treaty shopping, also called corporate (re-)structuring, is most often associated with legal persons, in particular mailbox companies. Much discussed in this respect is the practice of “round-tripping” where the investor-claimant is foreign-incorporated, but majority-controlled by natural or legal persons of host State nationality (see e.g. Tokios Tokeles v Ukraine, ICSID Case No. ARB/02/18, Decision on…
Background At the end of June 2015, the London Court of International Arbitration issued three new guidance notes to accompany its 2014 arbitration rules. The guidance notes, entitled: “Notes for Parties”, “Notes for Arbitrators”, and “Notes on Emergency Procedures” are available on the institution’s website. In issuing the guidance notes, the LCIA has followed in…
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. There are a number of questions that influence how arbitration treats cases in which an award is challenged successfully. A court overturns an award declining jurisdiction,…
By Order of 11 May 2015 (unpublished) in Case No. ARB 005/2014 – A v. B, Justice Sir David Steel of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Court of First Instance dismissed an application made by an award debtor to set aside an order granted by the DIFC Court on 8 January 2015 (unpublished) for…
In May this year some seventy-five states and institutions adopted (of which sixty-five signed) the International Energy Charter (IEC) in The Hague ministerial conference to herald a new age of global energy co-operation. The Charter is a political declaration by states and it modernises its predecessor the European Energy Charter (1991) – the foundation of…
There appears to be a gradual shift in international arbitration, towards an assumption that parties to an arbitration agreement who are seeking interim relief will look first to the tribunal, rather than to the national courts. This is seen in recent iterations of the institutional rules, such as the 2012 ICC Rules, the 2014 LCIA…
This article discusses the successful challenge of a unanimous arbitral award on the grounds that the arbitral tribunal was improperly constituted due to the bias of one of the three arbitrators. The challenge was successful before the Higher Regional Court of Munich (Decision of Feb. 2nd 2014, Case 34 Sch 7/13). The German Supreme Court,…
Dear Readers, you may have noticed the dearth of recent posts, for which we make no excuses. It is late summer for the northern hemisphere contributors. At this point, most of us are lingering poolside at the Kluwer International Arbitration Resort and Amusement Park, sipping procedural cocktails in the waning light as the children take…
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. Taiwan is not a signatory to the New York Convention owning to its subtle status. To enforce a mainland China’s award or civil judgment in Taiwan,…
The Dissenting Opinion of Georges Abi-Saab to the Decision on Jurisdiction and Merits of September 3, 2013 in the case ConocoPhillips, Petrozuata B.V., ConocoPhillips Hamaca B.V. and ConocoPhillips Gulf of Paria B.V. v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, ICSID Case No. ARB/07/30 (hereinafter the “Dissenting Opinion”), raises the issue of whether there is a duty to…
In the recent case Integral Petroleum SA v Melars Group Ltd [2015] EWHC 1893 (Comm) arbitrator Mr W Laurence Craig was asked to decide a dispute involving three companies: Integral Petroleum SA (“Integral” or “Claimant”), Melars Group Ltd (“Melars” or “Respondent”) and Dartex Trade Ltd (“Dartex”). By a contract signed on 14 December 2011 (the “December…
In 2013 the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin announced in his annual message to the Council of the Federation: “I would like to attract your attention to one more problem – the mechanisms of commercial dispute resolution are still not as good as the global practice is, and it is necessary to raise…
The Odyssey is one of the most famous epic poems of the classic era. Attributed to Homer, it describes the journey of Odysseus from Troy to Ithaca, his homeland. It took the hero about ten years to complete his journey. This history is full of unexpected events, sudden changes and new obstacles that Odysseus must…
On 15 July 2015, the Supreme People’s Court (the “SPC”) of the People’s Republic of China (the “PRC”) issued its long-awaited notice addressing issues relating to the validity of arbitration agreements and the enforceability of arbitral awards involving China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (“CIETAC”) and its former South China and Shanghai sub-commissions. The…
In a recent ruling of the DIFC Court of First Instance (CFI 043/2014 – DNB Bank ASA v. (1) Gulf Eyadah Corporation (2) Gulf Navigation Holding PJSC, ruling of the DIFC Court of First Instance of 2nd July 2015), H.E. Justice Ali Al Madhani, one of the UAE-national resident judges of the DIFC Courts, drew…
The phenomenon of “price review” and “price reopener” disputes – whereby a party seeks to adjust the pricing basis under an existing long term gas sales contract – has for a number of years been the subject of lively discussion in energy and arbitration circles. As participants at the GAR Live Energy Disputes event (held…
On of the most important developments this year in Latin America is the Chilean Act N°20.848, which sets forth a new framework for foreign investment in Chile (hereinafter, the “ New Foreign Investment Act” or the “Act”), replacing the regime contained in the Decree Law N°600 of 1974 (hereinafter, the “DL 600”). According to the…
Summary In the three years since the 2012 declaration of independence by CIETAC’s former Shanghai and Shenzhen sub-commissions, affected parties have faced an uncertain and unpredictable arbitration process in Mainland China. In a recent judicial interpretation (the Reply), however, the PRC Supreme People’s Court (SPC) has clarified the jurisdictional uncertainties caused by the split. Background…
At the CIARB’s London centenary conference earlier this month, the Honourable Chief Justice of Singapore, Sundaresh Menon, cautioned that: “we should remain mindful that there is no place for complacency or reason to assume that [the] international system of dispute resolution which so many have invested so much in, will continue on its recent trajectory…
On 5 November 2014, the French Cour de Cassation, overruled a decision of the Paris Court of Appeal for having reversed the burden of proof in a case involving a non-participating party. With this victory before the French Supreme Court, Yukos Capital (“Yukos”) is one step closer to the enforcement of an arbitral award against…
On 21 May 2015, the CJEU rendered a landmark decision regarding questions of jurisdiction under the Brussels I Regulation (recast as Regulation 1215/2012, previously Regulation 44/2001) in the case of cartel damage proceedings. We may be grappling with this decision for a long time albeit it does not explicitly address arbitration. The CJEU’s judgment brings…
On July 22, 2015, the transcripts and the audio recordings of the conversations between Dr. Jernej Sekolec, one of the arbitrators in the arbitration regarding the territorial and maritime dispute between the Republic of Croatia (“Croatia”) and the Republic of Slovenia (“Slovenia”), and Ms. Simona Drenik, one of the Slovenian representatives in the proceedings, became…
