In recent years, the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market has shown steady signs of recovery from the effects of the Global Financial Crisis. According to a survey of over 735 M&A professionals recently conducted by KPMG, 82% of survey participants said they were planning acquisitions in 2015. Respondents cited large cash reserves, opportunities in emerging…
by Anya George, Schellenberg Wittmer Ltd for YSIAC An arbitrator who decides a case by reference to general notions of fairness and equity, rather than in accordance with a strict application of legal rules, is generally referred to as an amiable compositeur or as deciding ex aequo et bono (even though these notions are…
As contracts containing Dispute Adjudication Boards (“DAB’s”) as a mandatory prerequisite to arbitration are on the increase (and being recognised as such by many legal systems) what issues are there around enforcing the establishment of such a Board? There is always, especially when a contentious situation has arisen, a party more reluctant to engage in…
We are pleased to announce the 30th Anniversary of the School of International Arbitration, Queen Mary University of London. To commemorate its anniversary, the School of International Arbitration will be presenting in London a Celebration Conference on the “The Evolution and Future of International Arbitration: The Next 30 Years”. Kluwer Arbitration Blog will be live…
The new Slovak Arbitration Act (“SAA”) was adopted by the Parliament (Act. No. 336/2014 Coll.), and is in force as of January 1, 2015. In order to see whether the SAA will promote Slovakia as an arbitration venue, main novelties and amendments brought by this new act are analysed in this blog entry. Arbitrability: Under…
The recent annulment decision in Tza Yap Shum v. Peru (ICSID Case No. ARB/07/6) has brought back the discussion regarding the ‘pure’ adversarial nature of investor-state arbitration system. Mr. Shum, a Chinese investor claimed indirect expropriation under the Agreement on Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments (APPRI) between the Governments of Peru and China arising…
In recent years, arbitration institutions have made significant progress by adopting the provisions on emergency arbitrators (“EA”). One of the biggest appeals of the new mechanism is that it allows parties to obtain interim relief before a case is referred to the arbitral tribunal. The main purpose of EA is to protect assets and evidence…
The Dubai Court of Cassation stays firmly on course in its enforcement of foreign arbitration awards under the 1958 New York Convention for the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards (NYC) and hence keeps consolidating its pro-NYC enforcement practice. This has most recently been demonstrated by the Court’s pro-Convention approach in Case No. 434/2014…
and Rute Alves, PLMJ Sociedade de Advogados 1. Legal and practical background Pursuant to Article 17(3) of the Portuguese Voluntary Arbitration Law (Law no. 63/2011 of 14 December – hereinafter “LAV”), any party may request the competent state court to reduce the amount of the fees fixed by the arbitrators if they were not agreed…
On 12 March 2015, substantial amendments were introduced to the Egyptian Investment Law no. 8/1997 (Investment Law). The amendments generally aim at attracting new investments to Egypt through offering further incentives and guarantees, removing obstacles, and streamlining the procedure. Incentives include, for example, trimming sales tax to 5% from as high as 10%, and setting…
In the Dubai Court of Cassation Case No. 434/2014 (Al Reyami Group LLC v. BTI Befestigungstechnik GmbH & Co KG) judgment issued on 23 November 2014, the Dubai Court of Cassation confirmed the Court of Appeal’s decision and, inter alia, granted recognition of a foreign arbitral award pursuant to the provisions of the 1958 New York…
Most institutional rules share a common procedural framework for arbitral proceedings—the origins of which are traceable to the first set of ICC Rules in 1922. This skeletal framework broadly describes the lifecycle of the arbitration, and provides for the order of pleadings, constitution of a tribunal, conduct of proceedings, and making of the award, in…
If the Canada-China BIT is any guide, then the US-China BIT may prove to be profoundly state-friendly. Unlike Canada’s 2004 model investment agreement and the investment chapter of the 2014 Canada-European Union Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement (CETA), the Canada-China BIT offers only negligible establishment-phase protections and lacks disciplines on state-owned enterprises. With such provisions,…
The Main Approaches Regarding Enforcement of Annulled Foreign Awards The ongoing issue of whether an award that was set aside in the country of origin should be enforced has recently arisen in England and Wales. This issue has divided jurisdictions in two camps: the first camp is comprised of jurisdictions that are ready to enforce…
Negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) have highlighted the growing debate over investment arbitration. Last week the New York Times published an article summarizing objections to the TPP investment chapter. The article notes that politicians, law professors and liberal activists “have expressed fears the provisions would infringe…
Notwithstanding 2014’s political and constitutional upheavals, arbitration in Hong Kong has continued its successful trajectory as a popular and well-regarded means of alternative dispute resolution. Recent Hong Kong court decisions and developments at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) reinforce the pro-arbitration attitude of the courts and HKIAC’s position as a world-class arbitral institution….
The DIFC Courts Practice Direction No. 2 of 2015 on the Referral of Judgment Payment Disputes to Arbitration (available online on the official website of the DIFC Courts at https://difccourts.ae/difc-courts-practice-direction-no-2-2015-referral-judgment-payment-disputes-arbitration/) was finally adopted on 16 February 2015 and is now in full force. For conceptual accuracy, the more appealing title of “Practice Direction on the…
In recent years, international arbitration has increasingly been recognised as the preferred dispute resolution mechanism for cross-border derivative transactions, particularly those involving parties from emerging markets. The key reasons for this popularity include the growing diversity of counterparties and jurisdictions involved in derivatives trading, worldwide enforceability of arbitral awards against assets located in over 150…
On 17 March 2015, the UN Convention on Transparency in Treaty-Based Investor-State Arbitration was opened for signature. So far, nine countries have signed the treaty (among them, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States). The Convention will enter into force six months after the first three instruments of ratification have been deposited…
The University of Virginia’s Spring 2014 symposium focused on the topic of international development. One panel focused on the role of international politics in the context of international dispute settlement. With the mandate to examine elements related to both politics and development, I was asked to explore outcomes in investment treaty arbitration (ITA) as a…
An often cited advantage of arbitration, as opposed to litigation, is the finality of the process. The grounds for time-consuming and costly challenges and appeals are limited. Under the English 1996 Arbitration Act (the “Act”), parties can only challenge or appeal an arbitration award on three grounds: (i) a challenge on the grounds that the…
and Queen Mary University of London This article is published as a result of the cooperation agreement between Kluwer Arbitration Blog and ArbitralWomen. 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. Issues relating to…
International investment law is shaped by key terms such as “investment”, “indirect expropriation”, “national treatment”, “most favored nation”, “fair and equitable treatment”, among others, which are at the heart of most investment treaties. But after 1959, when West Germany and Pakistan signed what is known as the first ever bilateral investment treaty, and, since then,…
In November 2014, a new arbitration center was established in Bulgaria – the KRIB Court of Arbitration (KRIB – Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria). The establishment of this institution was awaited by the Bulgarian business. The establishment of a new arbitral institution in Bulgaria is an important step, since arbitration is a widely…
