On February 27, 2014, Repsol S.A., Repsol Capital S.L. and Repsol Butano S.A. (collectively, ‘Repsol’), entered into a settlement agreement with Argentina, whereby Argentina agreed to pay Repsol $5 billion in USD denominated bonds as compensation for the expropriation of Repsol’s fifty-one percent shareholding in YPF S.A. and YPF Gas (the ‘Settlement Agreement’). Under the…
Critical negotiation moments punctuate the entire timeline of an international arbitration, from before it starts to even after it is over. And when these moments arise, a practitioner’s ability to negotiate effectively can sometimes be as important as their mastery of the subject matter. After all, what use is technical skill if you cannot deploy…
2013 saw the establishment of Serbia’s first arbitration institution which is not affiliated to the State – Belgrade Arbitration Center (BAC), created under the auspices of the Serbian Arbitration Association, a non-governmental and non-profit association of legal professionals and other individuals interested in arbitration law and promotion of arbitration. BAC is the third arbitral institution…
The very nature of international arbitration entails parties, arbitrators and any other participant in the arbitral proceedings generally being of different nationalities and speaking different languages. Therefore, the language in which the proceedings will be held becomes of great importance for the characteristic purpose of arbitration itself: the consensual resolution of disputes. Nevertheless, the procedural…
Exorbitant jurisdiction is generally described as comprising domestic courts’ powers in cross-border litigation to assume jurisdiction based on a very thin (although in the courts’ view sufficient and permitted by the courts’ domestic law) link between the case and the forum State. This may be based on territoriality (e.g. the respondent having assets in the…
This post is just a quick reminder about the European Parliament survey of arbitration practitioners that is currently undertaken by a team at the Brunel Center for the Study of Arbitration and Cross-Border Investment, led by Tony Cole. The survey is available at this link. The study concerns both the legal instruments developed in relation…
By Justin D’Agostino, Jessica Booth and Tracy Wu, Herbert Smith Freehills Ever since the internal fight between CIETAC (Beijing) and its Shanghai and Shenzhen sub-commissions became public in May 2012, the internal jurisdictional dispute between Beijing and the two sub-commissions has loomed large, resulting in the latter two declaring independence, re-naming themselves and introducing new…
Stare decisis is Latin for “to stand by things decided”. This is also a doctrine which is frequently used by courts which decides to abide by a point of law which was previously held by a court of equal or superior judicial hierarchy. The system of stare decisis purports to promote stability, certainty, reliability, uniformity,…
During past months, the Belgian arbitration community has been very active in promoting its country and Brussels in particular, as a major international arbitration centre. 2013 and 2014 are indeed vintage years for Belgian arbitration. First, the Cepani, the major Belgian arbitration institution, modernised its arbitration rules. The new rules entered into force as from…
Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously introduced into the American lexicon the oxymoronic concept of the “known unknown”—“that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.”1)See Michiko Kakutani, Rumsfeld’s Defense of Known Decisions, N.Y. TIMES (Feb. 3, 2011), https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/04/books/04book.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1& (reviewing DONALD RUMSFELD, KNOWN AND UNKNOWN: A MEMIOR (2011)). A…
In an encouraging ruling of earlier this year (see Case No. 249 of 2013 – Middle East Foundations LLC v. Meydan Group LLC (formerly Meydan LLC), Commercial Appeal, ruling of the Dubai Court of Appeal of 15 January 2014), the Dubai Court of Appeal confirmed the time extension provisions for rendering final awards under the…
On 16 April 2014, the Parliament of the European Union has published legislative resolution No P7_TA-PROV (2014) 0419 on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing framework for managing financial responsibility linked to investor-state dispute settlement tribunals established by international agreements to which the European Union is a…
By Karl Pörnbacher and Lars Pütz, Hogan Lovells LLP An arbitral tribunal’s preliminary ruling on its jurisdiction can be challenged by application for state court decision according to Sec. 1040 (3) German Code of Civil Procedure, following the example of Art. 16 of the UNCITRAL Model Law. Such a case has been decided by the…
I. The Court of Appeal of Lisbon recently granted recognition of an arbitral award made in Paris, under the Rules of Arbitration of the ICC, holding that the Portuguese law applicable to the Agency Agreement, in spite of being of mandatory nature, do not constitute part of the international public policy of the Portuguese state…
Authors: Geoff Hansen, Partner and Jennifer Galatas, Senior Associate1)The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Nuwan Dias in preparing this article. 1. Introduction – APRAG and Beyond On 27 to 28 March 2014, international dispute experts converged on Melbourne, Australia to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Asia-Pacific Regional Arbitration Group (APRAG) Conference. APRAG is…
Though of paramount importance in jurisprudence, no contract is perfect. Sometimes, at the time the parties negotiated and drafted the contract, they inadvertently failed to anticipate a particular issue that only arose years after execution. As a result, the parties are left with a glaring gap and, naturally, they cannot agree how it should be…
In the wake of hotly contested domestic and international developments, speakers at the Annual ITA-ASIL Conference in Washington, DC on April 9 gave varied and sometimes conflicting perspectives on the use of mass and class claims in arbitration. Mass Claims in Investment Arbitration – A Favorable View In her keynote speech, Carolyn B. Lamm of…
As part of the 26th Annual ITA Workshop taking place in Dallas on June 18-20 2014, we have prepared a survey on the experiences of arbitration practitioners with enforceability of arbitral awards in the recent past. In some respects, this builds on excellent work done in the 2010 survey of Queen Mary College/PWC, although it…
I would like to continue the theme of the emerging convergence of investment arbitration and international trade. In my previous posts (see here and here) I discussed the prospect of using trade remedies to enforce investment arbitration awards. Another key example of convergence addresses the emerging trend of relying on investment arbitration to enforce international…
Readers of this blog are likely to be familiar with the existence of Bilateral Investment Treaties (“BITs”) and the wealth of arbitral awards made publicly available through the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”). Given the publicity afforded to proceedings under BITs, or multilateral investment treaties such as NAFTA, one might be…
Chair: Klaus Reichert SC (London) Main Speakers: Dr. Aloysius Llamzon (The Hague), Anthony Sinclair (London) Commentators: Utku Cosar (Istanbul), Carolyn B. Lamm (Washington, DC) Rapporteur: Elizabeth Karanja (Nairobi) No one would seriously challenge the proposition that investor wrongdoing is a systemic threat to international investment arbitration. But what constitutes investor wrongdoing? What are the standards…
The views expressed are those of the author alone and should not be regarded as representative of or binding upon the author’s institution or the ArbitralWomen. Guidelines 26 and 27 of the IBA Guidelines on Party Representation in International Arbitration have again raised the debate on the extent that Arbitral Tribunals are entitled to deal…
Few days ago, the Qatari Supreme Court decided to overturn an earlier judgment of the Doha court of appeal which upheld a decision of the court of first instance to set aside an ICC arbitral award as being in violation of the Qatari public policy. The new ruling comes in rescue of the Qatari courts’…
In his “Kiev Arbitration Days” after-dinner speech in November 2012 (“BITS, BATS and BUTS”), Gary Born presented a suggestion that can leave no one indifferent (speech published as “Essay” by Young Arbitration Review, March 2014 Edition). His idea is to take advantage of the legal framework and experiences gained from the world of investment arbitration…
