On July 18, 2014 the Cassation Court – the highest court in Armenia, in the case EKD/1910/02/13 delivered a decision (“Decision”) which paralyzed the whole arbitration system in the country. In the mentioned case the Cassation Court (“Court”) needed to answer a question whether an arbitral tribunal was entitled to decide the matter of invalidity…
„The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority […]. They contradict their parents […] and tyrannize their teachers.“ This complaint sounds familiar, but the quote is actually attributed to Socrates. As every generation after him seems to have had the same sensation, children’s behaviour must have constantly deteriorated over the last…
The New Amparo Law in Mexico introduced a revised concept of “responsible authority”, under which arbitrators might be considered as authorities for amparo claim purposes. Such new concept poses some interrogations: Does it threatens arbitration in Mexico? Would arbitration withstand the pounding? Would the parties’ agreement to arbitrate be enforced? Would the courts stand up…
In 2012, Russian art collector Dmitry Rybolovlev acquired a painting made by Amedeo Modigliani, an Italian artist whose work from the early 20th century is regularly sold for record prices, from art dealer Yves Bouvier for an amount of no less than US $ 118 million. Two years later, Rybolovlev learned by chance that Bouvier…
On 19 October 2015, the Hong Kong Law Reform Commission published a Consultation Paper recommending that third party funding should be permitted for arbitrations in Hong Kong. The Paper invites public comment on the recommendation, and how third party funding should be adopted in Hong Kong. A link to the paper can be found here….
In September 2015, the Young International Arbitration Practitioners of New York (YIAP-NY) was officially launched. Initiated by the International Arbitration Group at Herbert Smith Freehills New York LLP, YIAP-NY’s membership is comprised of young lawyers from more than 14 law firms in the city, as well as young practitioners from arbitral institutions such as the…
Co-authored with William Kenny, Intern at HKIAC A View from Inside A foreword by Victor Dumler, Dumler and Partners Law Offices, St Petersburg. Over the last two decades, Russia-related disputes have become a considerable part of “Russia’s export” into Western Europe. Yet, after more than a year living under the sanctions regime, the situation is…
Under sec 1 of the RF Law on International Commercial Arbitration 5338-1 of 07.07.1993, disputes arising from civil, including corporate, relationships may be referred to international commercial arbitration, unless otherwise provided by law. However, there is no such restriction provided. In some cases, such as Novolipetsk Still Mill (NLMK) v. Nikolay Maksimov (Decrees of the…
While everyone has been watching with fascination the ups and downs of the Greek crisis, colleagues have been busy in the background trying to unravel some core components of the Greek Bailouts. The PSI deal, which is largely responsible for passing the burden of any potential Greek default from private hands onto public coffers, has…
Co-authored with Maria Laura Marceddu, Italian Association for Arbitration (AIA) The Public Consultations launched by the European Commission in March 2014, and the European Parliament’s recommendations to the Commission on the negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership [TTIP], in July 2015, have revealed a widespread criticism against the traditional investment arbitration system. Mighty…
The Swedish Arbitration Act [“Act”] is currently under review. In 2014, 15 years after the Act first entered into force, a committee was given the task of assessing how well it has worked in practice and how it measures up internationally. According to the committee’s terms of reference, the primary motivation behind the review is…
China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) and China Maritime Arbitration Commission (CMAC) are the best-known international arbitration institutions in China that deal with the resolution of international commercial disputes. There are, however, other arbitral institutions in China that are also empowered to resolve international commercial disputes, by virtue of the Notice of the…
Queen Mary University of London & Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP Volume 32 (2015) Issue 5 contains: ARTICLES SECTION Seung CHONG & C.L. LIM, The Convergence of China’s Foreign and Domestic Investment Regimes and China’s Investment Treaty Commitments Abstract: The Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has issued a…
Part I of this article analyzed the three jurisdictional requirements under the ICSID Convention for submission of counterclaims. Now we turn to three investor-State tribunal decisions decided within the last two years, and how they have contributed to the jurisprudence on counterclaims: Metal-Tech v. Uzbekistan (ICSID Case No. ARB/10/3, Award, 4 October 2013), Al-Warraq v….
The engines of economic growth in India are moving towards full throttle. In this resurrection of India as an economic giant, foreign investors are keenly looking at safeguards the Government of India is prepared to offer to ensure that the commercial bases of their investments are protected. The corner stones of investor confidence have always…
In the last two years, three tribunals have enriched the investor-state dispute jurisprudence on counterclaims. Metal-Tech v. Uzbekistan (ICSID Case No. ARB/10/3, Award, 4 October 2013), Al-Warraq v. Indonesia (UNCITRAL, Final Award, 15 December 2014), and Perenco v. Ecuador (ICSID Case No. ARB/08/6, Interim Decision on the Environmental Counterclaim, 11 August 2015) are the relevant…
The 2015 International Arbitration Survey is out. Subtitled “Improvements and Innovations in International Arbitration,” the most recent effort by Queen Mary / White & Case has a lot to say about efforts to date to improve the practice and what more can be done. The survey’s methodology and sample size have themselves been the subject…
Registration is now CLOSED for Kluwer Arbitration London 2015, but with less than a week to go, I would like to offer all Blog readers an opportunity to submit a QUESTION for our Q&A Author Panel. I know that sadly not all readers are able to attend the live event at Tower Hill next week, but I’m delighted to announce that…
For natural persons, possession of the nationality of the host state is an absolute bar to becoming a party to ICSID proceedings against that state. Article 25 of the ICSID Convention delimits the scope of arbitral jurisdiction to investment disputes between a ‘Contracting State’ and a ‘national of another Contracting State’, defined as ‘any natural…
In 1996, when the Brazilian Arbitration Act (“BAA”) came into force, the New York Convention (“NYC”) was still facing considerable resistance from the Brazilian Executive and Legislative branches. At that time, there were few indications that the NYC would be ratified in the near future. This is why the draftsmen of the bill (a bill…
While the focus of the debate concerning free trade and investment agreements in Europe has been almost exclusively on the transatlantic deals with the US (TTIP) and Canada (CETA), there is far more going on in Asia with potentially much more at stake. Indeed, nothing less than a very competitive race is going on between…
Financial, trade and political sanctions have long been used by states as a tool of foreign policy. This is no less true today, where high profile sanctions regimes have been imposed against Iran, Myanmar, Sudan, North Korea, and Zimbabwe amongst many others. See, for example, the lists of sanctions maintained by the EU (see here),…
In international arbitration, the effect of international sanctions regulations usually arises at two key stages. First, at the commencement of arbitration, where arbitral institutions, arbitrators and counsel involved in the proceedings must consider if they are potentially in breach of such regulations. Secondly, at the enforcement stage, if an award is challenged under the New…
The issue of a unilateral (optional, alternative, hybrid) arbitration clause is highly controversial in commercial arbitration. The approach to these clauses varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In 2012, the Supreme Arbitration Court of Russia (a state court), in Russian Telephone Company v. Sony Ericsson, declared a unilateral arbitration clause invalid. The decision attracted attention of…
