UNCITRAL’s Working Group II (Arbitration and Conciliation) will begin its 47th session today, July 7 , in New York. Among the items to be discussed is a proposal for a multilateral convention on the enforceability of international commercial settlement agreements reached through mediation. (See also this link.) The proposal, which has been put forth by…
The ICSID Convention threshold for arbitrators’ challenges, upholding challenges only if arbitrators exhibit a manifest lack of the qualities required to sit as arbitrators (Art. 57 ICSID Convention), has in the past been criticized as being too strict. Recently, however, few decisions, discussed in this post, seem to show that the ICSID “manifest” threshold is…
By Jelita Pandjaitan and Justin Tang The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (the “FTZ”) was launched in September 2013 with promises of relaxed controls in key areas such as foreign exchange and foreign investment. In the subsequent nine months, a raft of initiatives have included the liberalisation of offshore RMB financing and other cross-border…
for Young Arbitrators Forum (YAP) In 2000, only five Latin American countries had enacted the Model Law, and perhaps even worse, roughly a fifth of Latin American countries had still not acceded to the New York Convention. Today, the Model Law is in force in roughly half of all Latin American countries1)The 1985 Model Law…
and Sapna Jhangiani, Clyde & Co. and Joseph P. Matthews J.D., University of Miami School of Law for Young Arbitration Practitioners It has been some time since the White Industries Australia Limited v Republic of India judgment was rendered against India in 2011. However, there remain several interesting aspects of the case still not widely…
Armada (Singapore) Pte Ltd (Under Judicial Management) v Gujarat NRE Coke Limited [2014] FCA 636 Justice Foster of the Federal Court of Australia handed down judgment on 17 June 2014 in an application for the enforcement of three foreign arbitral awards. The key issue for determination before the court was whether the applicant, Armada (Singapore)…
and Oleg Temnikov Foreword The recent decision on preliminary objections, dated 17 January 2014, against the application for annulment in Elsamex S.A. v. Honduras (ARB/09/4) brought renewed interest in the procedure for summary dismissal of unmeritorious claims under Rule 41(5) of the ICSID Arbitration Rules. The present post examines shortly this procedure as well as…
Dr. Ileana M. Smeureanu 1)Ileana Smeureanu is an associate attorney with Jones Day (Paris). This article is based on a speech that the author gave at the ICC YAF/YAPP 6TH Joint Annual Colloquium “Young Approaches to Arbitration”, Vienna (Austria), 12 April 2014. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and…
In two recent decisions, Banyan Tree v. Meydan Group LLC (Case No. ARB 003-2013) and X1 and X2 v. Y1 and Y2 (Case No. ARB 002-2013), the DIFC Court of First Instance (H.E. Justice Omar Al Muhairi and Sir John Chadwick respectively) confirmed its jurisdiction to recognise and enforce within the DIFC arbitral awards rendered…
The Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA) held its 26th Annual ITA Workshop in Dallas, Texas on June 18-20, 2014. This year’s ITA Workshop, titled “Modern Enforcement of Arbitral Awards: ‘Show Me the Money,’” covered a range of recent developments and strategic considerations relating to the enforcement of arbitral awards. To kick-off this Workshop, the ITA…
One of the defining and distinguishing features of arbitration is the privacy that it affords parties. However, as all practitioners recognize, arbitration is rarely conducted in full secrecy and applications to vacate or confirm an award can bring the existence, subject matter, and outcome of an arbitration to the forefront of public discourse. Often times,…
The keynote speaker at this year’s ITA Annual Workshop was the Honorable Bernardo Sepúlveda-Amor. Judge Sepúlveda-Amor is Vice President of the International Court of Justice and a professor of international law at El Colegio de México. He has previously served on the United Nations International Law Commission, as Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and as…
Although Turkey has ratified the ICSID Convention as early as in 1988, it was not until the recent decade that its domestic law recognized the possibility to resort to arbitration against the State. Until 2000s, disputes arising between a public authority and a private party were to be resolved in an appeal to administrative courts…
By Jawad Ahmad1)Jawad Ahmad is an Associate (Foreign Lawyer) at Rajah & Tann’s International Arbitration and Construction Practice in Singapore. LLB in European Legal Studies (Kent) (First Class Hons.); LLM (UC Berkeley). Attorney-at-law (New York). and Paul Tan2)Paul Tan is a Partner at Rajah & Tann’s International Arbitration and Construction Practice in Singapore. LLB (NUS)…
Co-authored by Georg von Segesser, Benjamin Moss and Aileen Truttmann, Schellenberg Wittmer An arbitral tribunal’s relationship to state courts remains a complex and often contested topic. A particularly interesting question in this regard is whether a party to arbitral proceedings should be able to seek recovery of damages it was ordered to pay in state…
An English court recently ruled on important questions relating to arbitration due process. In Interprods Ltd v De La Rue International Ltd, [2014] EWHC 68 (Comm), the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court dismissed an application to annul an arbitral award rendered by a sole arbitrator sitting in London. The circumstances that gave rise…
In keeping with our tradition of surveying readers on key developments in international arbitration, we invite readers with experience in mainland China to fill out our survey on the enforcement of international arbitration awards in China. Julian Ku, Bei Xiao and I have been studying this topic for several months now, and we note the…
Recent posts suggest that “double hats” – practitioners who also act as arbitrators – have finally taken interest in the role of a tribunal secretary. Several years ago it would have been unthinkable for partners in major law firms to spend their time concerning themselves with what the tribunal secretary does, let alone post Kluwer…
In two recent rulings (see Case No. ARB 002/2013 – (1) X1, (2) X2 v. (1) Y1, (2) Y2, ruling of the DIFC Court of First Instance, undated, 2014; and Case No. ARB 003/2013 – Banyan Tree Corporate PTE LTD v. Meydan Group LLC, ruling of the DIFC Court of First Instance of 27 May…
Between February and March 2014, the Survey on the Use of Soft Law Instruments in International Arbitration was open for responses here at Kluwer Arbitration Blog. The users were asked to report on their real-live encounters with the following instruments and notions: IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence, IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest,…
In keeping with our tradition of surveying readers on key developments in international arbitration, we invite readers with experience in mainland China to fill out our survey on the enforcement of international arbitration awards in China. Julian Ku, Bei Xiao and I have been studying this topic for several months now, and we note the…
Arbitration, or tahkim, has long-standing religious and cultural roots in the Middle East. However, there are also a number of differences and tensions between the Western perception of arbitration and certain Islamic legal principles and traditions which form the cornerstone of many Middle Eastern States. As the Middle East becomes more prominent in the global…
A recent amendment to Dubai Law No. (9) of 2004 Concerning the Dubai International Financial Centre (as previously amended by Dubai Law No. (14) of 2011), referred to as Dubai Law No. (7) of 2014 (Amending Law No. (9) of 2004 Concerning the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)) and issued by the Ruler of Dubai…
Uniform jurisprudence on Sovereign immunity still seems a long distance away in international sphere for the reason that the national laws and approaches adopted by the States govern this issue. There have been attempts in the past to somehow streamline the approach by adopting legislations and, in a broader sense, by bringing a multilateral treaty….
