Arbitration, BIT, Canada, Foreign Investment Law, ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, Investment Arbitration, Middle East, Uncategorized, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

In an Award on Jurisdiction rendered earlier this year under the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (the “ICSID Convention”) in ICSID Case No. ARB/11/7 – National Gas S.A.E. v. Arab Republic of Egypt (a copy of which is electronically available on the official Investment Treaty Arbitration…

Arbitration, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Romania

(Legal Research Institute of Romanian Academy)/ /Leave a comment
ArbitralWomen

Why is the evolution of international commercial arbitration important for Romania? First of all, Romania has a significant geostrategic position: it lies at the crossroads of three large international markets: the European Union, the Balkans and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Romania is the access gate of the East to the single market of the…

France, Recognition and enforcement of arbitral award, Seat of the arbitration, United States

(Sydney Law School)/ /9 Comments

The enforcement of awards following a decision at the seat remains a controversial issue in international arbitration. Should an enforcement court follow the decision of the seat court, or can the enforcement court reach a different conclusion? US courts and French courts continue to take different approaches to this issue. US courts will defer to…

Set aside an arbitral award, Singapore

(Hogan Lovells)/ /Leave a comment
Hogan Lovells

The Singapore courts have a well-earned reputation for supporting arbitration proceedings and favouring minimal curial intervention. That reputation has been enhanced by a number of recent decisions in which the courts have either granted stays of court actions pending the resolution of arbitration proceedings or rejected applications for arbitral awards to be set aside, including…

Arbitration, China, European Union, Hong Kong, Russia

(Fangda Partners)/ /5 Comments

Numerous commentators have reported on the sanctions war in the past. What remains to see is how the sanctions war affects the Russia-related arbitration geography. On 8 September 2014, the European Union introduced a new set of sanctions on major Russian companies and wealthy individuals. The sanctions came following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its…

Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, DIFC, Dispute, Dispute Resolution, Middle East, Uncategorized, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

In a recent lecture at the DIFC Courts (see Lecture Series No. 5, Practice Direction providing for the wider enforcement of Court Judgments through DIFC-LCIA Arbitration Centre, 19 November 2014), Chief Justice Michael Hwang announced that the DIFC Court Practice Direction No. X of 2014 amending Practice Direction No. 2 of 2012 DIFC Courts’ Jurisdiction…

Arbitration Agreements, International arbitration, Israel, New York Convention

(University of Alberta Faculty of Law)/ /1 Comment

The dispute in Siemens AG and Siemens Israel Ltd. v. Israeli Electric Cooperation Ltd. (3331/14, Supreme Court of Israel Judgment, 13 August 2014) arose out of a request for tenders for the purchase and maintenance of gas turbines issued by the Israeli Electric Cooperation (IEC), following which it entered into several contracts with Siemens Israel…

Ad hoc arbitration, Annulment, Arbitral Award, Arbitral seat, Arbitration Awards, International arbitration, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Public Policy

(Mechantaf Law)/ /Leave a comment

In one of the very rare decisions issued by courts in the Arab world applying the provisions of the Unified Agreement for the Investment of Arab Capital in the Arab States (the “UAIAC”), the Cairo Court of Appeal has revived in its decision dated February 5, 2014, the principle of finality of arbitration awards, by…

Arbitral Tribunal, Counsel, Guerrilla Tactics, IBA Guidelines on Party Representation, LCIA Arbitration, LCIA Guidelines for Parties' Legal Representatives

(Loyola University Chicago School of Law)/ /5 Comments
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

There have been increasing calls over the past few years for an international code of conduct for counsel in international commercial arbitration, and for arbitrators to have more power to control counsel conduct. The growing concern is related to significant changes that have taken place in international arbitration practice. Arbitration is no longer controlled by…

Appeal, Arbitration, Arbitration Awards, Awards, DIFC, Dubai, Enforcement, Middle East, Public Policy, Recognition and enforcement of arbitral award, Review on the merits, Uncategorized, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /1 Comment

In a recent ruling of the DIFC Court of Appeal (see Case CA-005-2-14, ruling of the DIFC Court of Appeal of 3rd November 2014), Justice Sir David Steel affirmed the previous ruling of the DIFC Court of First Instance in Banyan Tree v. Meydan Group LLC (see Case No. ARB 003/2013 – Banyan Tree Corporate…

ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor

(Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law)/ /4 Comments

Paraphrasing Churchill, investment arbitration is the worst form of foreign investment dispute resolution, except for all the others. Post-Suez, governments are more civilised than to employ gunboat diplomacy for their own investors, and local courts are inherently partial. Achieving neutrality is the objective, and the only means: investment arbitration. This is the conventional wisdom for…

Uncategorized

(Notre Dame Law School)/ /Leave a comment

I am writing to announce an opening for the position of Associate Editor for the Kluwer Arbitration Blog. The Associate Editor will report directly to me and work closely with the Kluwer team and Crina Baltag, our other Associate Editor. The essential duties of the Associate Editor are (1) collecting, editing and reviewing guest submissions…

Arbitrability, Arbitration, Energy, Mexico

(Wöss & Partners SC)/ /Leave a comment

1. Background Modern arbitration in Mexico commenced with the reforms to the Mexican Commercial Code in 1989 and with the incorporation in such code of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration in 1993. Project agreements with state entities such as Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) may be submitted to…

Uncategorized

(International Mediation Institute)/ /Leave a comment

and Michael Leathes Seismic tremors emanating from London’s Guildhall on October 29th 2014 are set to send change-inducing shockwaves, around the international dispute resolution community. It is widely known that dispute resolution’s customers, the disputants, have different needs and interests from the supply side of the market such as external counsel, ADR providers, and educators….

Good Faith, LCIA Arbitration, LCIA Guidelines for Parties' Legal Representatives

(BCH Advogados)/ /Leave a comment

Being a fan of Mac as I have been for many years now, I have always enjoyed reading magazines related to those nifty computer products. Macworld is among the regular publications on my reading list. Two particular sections of it have always grabbed my attention. The first section is dedicated to “mac gems”, that is,…

BIT, Free Trade Agreements, NAFTA, Trade Promotion Authority, Trans-Pacific Partnership, Treaty, United States

, (Hogan Lovells)/ /Leave a comment
Hogan Lovells

A lot has been written recently about the importance of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) in the context of the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. TPA is the authority Congress grants to the President to enter into certain reciprocal trade agreements that Congress can approve or disapprove but cannot…

Bad Faith, Costs in arbitral proceedings, Counsel

(Schellenberg Wittmer)/ /1 Comment
Schellenberg Wittmer

Has the number of bad faith challenges against arbitral awards increased? Is there a need to better control parties and their counsel, and to sanction them should they not play by the rules? The topic was discussed earlier this year at a seminar organized in Stockholm by the Swedish Arbitration Association.1)Seminar of the Swedish Arbitration…

Applicable Law, Arbitration, China, Hong Kong

(AnJie Law Firm)/ /1 Comment

The Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (“HKIAC”) has recently revised its Model Arbitration Clause to include a choice of law provision. “Any dispute, controversy, difference or claim arising out of or relating to this contract, including the existence, validity, interpretation, performance, breach or termination thereof or any dispute regarding non-contractual obligations arising out of or…

Appointment of arbitrators, Arbitration Proceedings, Consolidation

(Herbert Smith Freehills LLP)/ /Leave a comment
Herbert Smith Freehills

Whilst many institutional rules now contain provisions which expressly address the complex issue of consolidation, the recently revised rules of the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (the “ICDR”), the international arm of the American Arbitration Association (the “AAA”), are the first to have introduced the novel concept of the “consolidation arbitrator”. Under the ICDR Rules,…

ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, International Court of Justice, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investor, Treaty, Treaty Interpretation, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

(Tribe Arbitration and St Mary's University)/ /Leave a comment

One of the recurrent controversial issues in the investment arbitration practice relates to the application of the general rule of treaty interpretation of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties in the interpretation of the provisions of the ICSID Convention and of investment treaties in general. Thomas Wälde in one of his last writings…

Arbitral Tribunal, ECJ, Portugal, Preliminary Ruling

(PLMJ - Sociedade de Advogados, RL)/ /Leave a comment

By José Miguel Júdice and Luís Castilho, PLMJ – Sociedade de Advogados Three years after the entry into force of the Portuguese Tax Arbitration Regime, the European Court of Justice (“the Court”) has, in the Ascendi Case (Case 377/13), finally issued a groundbreaking decision regarding the long standing question of whether the Tax Arbitral Court…

Evidence, Sport arbitration

(von Segesser Law Offices)/ /2 Comments

By Georg von Segesser / Elisabeth Leimbacher / Katherine Bell, Schellenberg Wittmer Ltd. In two almost identical German language decisions dated 27 March 2014 (Decisions 4A_362/2013 and 4A_448/2013) the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (“Supreme Court”) considered that the reliance on an illegally obtained video recording in a CAS award does not violate public policy (these…

Arbitration, Bribery, Fraud, ICC Arbitration, United States

(Haynes and Boone LLP )/ /Leave a comment

In a recent decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit considered Pemex’s allegations insufficient to sustain RICO jurisdiction in the Conproca vs. Pemex case. This prompts out a number of interrogations: Was the bar set too high for Pemex to sustain RICO Jurisdiction? Was the underlying reason of the Court’s decision…

Annulment, New York Convention

(JAMS Arbitration, Mediation, and ADR Services)/ /2 Comments
ArbitralWomen

By Lorraine M. Brennan, Esq 1)Lorraine M. Brennan is a full-time arbitrator and mediator at JAMS, specializing in international and domestic dispute resolution. Her bio can be found at www.jamsadr.com. Based in the New York office, Ms. Brennan was the Managing Director of JAMS International for three years and worked at the ICC International Court…