Arbitration, Arbitration Awards, Arbitration clause, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Commercial Arbitration, Corporate Counsel's view, Domestic law, English Law, Expedited arbitration, ICC Arbitration, ICSID Convention, International arbitration, Investment Arbitration, LCIA Arbitration, New York Convention

(Conway & Partners)/ /Leave a comment

There are many clients who are often engaged in industrious works that result in disputes. Typically, the applicable arbitral agreements requirement submitting claims to international arbitration and, in this author’s opinion, appropriately so. However, these same clients may also be subject to frequent claim assertions that lack any true merit. Despite this, there is not…

Appointment of arbitrators, Efficiency, International arbitration, Suggestions to improve transparency and access to usable data

(Arbitrator Intelligence)/ /9 Comments
Arbitrator Intelligence

In a recent post, here, I argued that the time has come to move on from the gumshoe clue-hunting approach currently employed to select international arbitrators. Existing practices are severely outdated and unduly expensive in an era of information and technological efficiency. The process for selecting arbitrators, I argued, should be more transparent and key…

Insolvency, Jurisdiction, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, Law governing the arbitration, Switzerland

(Schellenberg Wittmer Ltd, Switzerland)/ /1 Comment
Schellenberg Wittmer

Nathalie Voser and Anya George Few Swiss cases have sparked as much debate in the arbitration community as the Swiss Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in Vivendi vs. Elektrim. In that decision, the Supreme Court upheld the award of an arbitral tribunal seated in Switzerland which had declined jurisdiction over one of the respondents, Elektrim, after…

Attribution, BIT, ICSID Convention, Responsibility of States

(Central European University)/ /Leave a comment

Whereas cases of direct expropriation have become relatively rare in international investment arbitration and claims of breach of fair and equitable treatment obligation or indirect expropriation are currently more common, the profile of respondents in ICSID arbitration proceedings has also changed. However, if both investors and host governments are likely to agree that States may…

Arbitral seat, Arbitration, International arbitration, Middle East, New York Convention, Seat of the arbitration

(Baker & McKenzie)/ /Leave a comment

On 14 October 2012, Justice David Williams of the DIFC Court of First Instance (Dubai International Financial Centre) applied a course correction by issuing a decision confirming the jurisdiction of the DIFC Courts to grant a stay in the presence of a valid arbitration agreement providing for a seat of arbitration outside the DIFC. Justice…

Arbitration Proceedings, Interim Orders

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

In the recent decision of PT Pukuafu Indah and others v. Newmont Indonesia Ltd and another ([2012] SGHC 187) the Singapore High Court (the Court) confirmed that it did not have jurisdiction to set aside an interim anti-suit injunction ordered by an arbitral tribunal. In reaching this decision, the Court added to a growing body…

Arbitration, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, International arbitration, Latin America

(Linklaters)/ /1 Comment

A few months ago I wrote a post on this Blog about what I saw as “work left to do” in the Spanish arbitration system. I started with the need to build a regional court of arbitration on a par with those well-known centres in other jurisdictions, with the fundamental aim of taking advantage of…

China, CIETAC, Domestic Courts, Enforcement, Provisional measures

(Eversheds)/ /Leave a comment

The recent revisions to the Chinese Civil Procedure Law (the “CPL”) made some significant amendments to the arbitration law in China. In particular, the new CPL for the first time provides for pre-arbitration preservation measures to be available from the Chinese courts. The revisions will come into force on 1 January 2013. Under the existing…

Asia-Pacific, Enforcement, Hong Kong, Jurisdiction, New York Convention, Singapore International Arbitration Centre

(Norton Rose Fulbright)/ /2 Comments
YSIAC

In Astro Nusantara International BV v PT Ayunda Prima Mitra [2012] SGHC 212, the Singapore High Court set out the available recourse against an international arbitration award made in Singapore. This case has significant implications for Singapore as a seat of arbitration, and this note contrasts the position between Singapore and Hong Kong against the…

Domestic Courts, Enforcement, Middle East, New York Convention, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

In a recent ruling of 18 October 2012, the Dubai Court of Cassation, the highest court in the Emirate of Dubai, against whose judgments lies no further appeal, confirmed the enforcement of a trilogy of DIFC-LCIA awards – one on liability and two on costs (all forming part of the same reference) – rendered by…

Set aside an arbitral award, Set aside an international arbitral award

(Taylor Wessing)/ /10 Comments

It must be an arbitrator’s nightmare: Imagine a high-stake arbitration that goes on for years, the entire distance, including witness hearings and expert evidence, only for the final award to be set aside on procedural grounds. And this is exactly what the Frankfurt Court of Appeals (Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt) did in a judgment in February 2011:…

Arbitration Proceedings, Discovery, Evidence, IBA Rules of Evidence, Witness

(Conway & Partners)/ /Leave a comment

Broadly defined, the word “deposition” refers to the taking of a “written record of a witness’s out-of-court testimony.” (Bryan A. Gardner, Black’s Law Dictionary, 8th edition , p. 472.) This general definition notwithstanding, in practice the word “deposition” has become closely associated with US pre-trial discovery. The witness deposition, which is attended by lawyers for…

arbitrators’ conduct, Evidence, IBA Rules of Evidence

(Loyola University Chicago School of Law)/ /2 Comments
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

The addition of the good faith requirement to the 2010 IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration has been criticized in a recent law review article.  In Good Faith, Bad Faith, But Not Losing Faith:  A Commentary on the 2010 IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration, Pedro J….

Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Costs, Costs in arbitral proceedings, Enforcement

(Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /1 Comment
WilmerHale

In its important 2011 decision AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, the United States Supreme Court sharply limited the grounds on which a court may invalidate an arbitration agreement. A recent ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, In re Checking Account Overdraft Litigation MDL No. 2036, illustrates how lower courts are…

Applicable Law, BIT, Damages, ICSID Convention, Investment Arbitration, State entity, Treaty, Umbrella clause

(International Moot Court Competition Association (IMCCA))/ /Leave a comment

The problem of the law applicable to State contracts (i.e. contracts concluded between a foreign national and a State or a state entity) as well as the responsibility of States for the breach of these contracts has entertained the minds of scholars and practitioners ever since the famous PCIJ dictum in the 1929 Serbian Loans…

China, CIETAC

(Taylor Wessing)/ /1 Comment

by Peter Bert and Joachim Glatter Disputes between the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (“CIETAC”) and its sub-commissions in Shanghai (“CIETAC Shanghai”) and Shenzhen (“CIETAC South China”) currently cause significant legal uncertainty. These internal issues at CIETAC create risks for parties that have agreed arbitration proceedings with these local sub-commissions in their contracts,…

Arbitration Awards, Domestic Courts, Eastern Europe, Enforcement

(CAI & Lenard )/ /Leave a comment

Arbitration practitioners often put Ukraine below the average ranking of countries in terms of recognition of arbitration. Ukraine’s image of a not entirely arbitration-friendly jurisdiction is “promoted” with common thought about problematic enforcement of arbitral awards in Ukraine. In well-known case “Regent Company v. Ukraine”, the European Court of Human Rights (in its decision of…

Arbitration, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Domestic Courts, Jurisdiction, Switzerland

(Editor in Chief, ASA Bulletin; LALIVE)/ /1 Comment

In a recently published decision dated 6 August 2012 (4A_119/2012), the Swiss Federal Supreme Court confirmed its own jurisprudence according to which state courts facing a jurisdictional defense based on an alleged arbitration agreement must not assess in full the validity of the arbitration agreement. In such cases, the state court must limit itself to a summary examination of whether or not a valid arbitration agreement exists.

Appointment of arbitrators, Women in arbitration

/ /3 Comments

Over the summer, I read two discussions that gave some fascinating, albeit wholly depressing statistics about women arbitrators.  The first was a great discussion initiated by Lucy Greenwood of Fulbright & Jaworski on the OGEMID listserv, which noted that only 6.5% of all commercial arbitrator appointments (both party appointments and institutional appointments) are of women.1)Ms….

Asia-Pacific, Costs, Set aside an arbitral award

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

By Justin D’Agostino, Tracy Wu and Briana Young The Hong Kong Court of Appeal recently awarded indemnity costs against an applicant who attempted unsuccessfully to set aside an arbitral award. In a decision that many will welcome, the Hong Kong court has sent another strong message of support for the finality of the arbitral process….

Jurisdiction, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, Latin America, Provisional measures

(Clyde & Co. LLP)/ /1 Comment
Clyde & Co.

A recent decision of the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice (“STJ”) has ruled, for the first time, on the issue of the concurrent jurisdiction of national courts and arbitral tribunals with respect to the making of interim measures (Itarumã Participações S.A. v Participações em Complexos Bioenergéticos S.A. – PCBIOS, Resp no. 1,297,974-RJ). The decision is…

Arbitration Awards, Arbitrators, BIT, Costs in arbitral proceedings, ICSID Convention, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Jurisdiction

(International Moot Court Competition Association (IMCCA))/ /15 Comments

“Research is formalized curiosity…” – Z. Hurston In what follows I have tried to gather information from publicly available sources regarding some of the questions which have troubled my mind lately. It is hoped that the results would be of interest to the readers. For me, this proved to be one of my most exciting…