Arbitration Agreements, CIETAC, Validity

(Herbert Smith Freehills)/ /1 Comment
Herbert Smith Freehills

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…

Appellate Body, ICSID Convention, Precedent

(Association for International Arbitration)/ /2 Comments

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,…

Belgium, International arbitration, UNCITRAL Model Law

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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…

Disclosure, Discovery, Document Exchange, Document Production, IBA Guidelines on Party Representation, IBA Rules of Evidence

(Williams & Connolly LLP)/ /1 Comment

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…

Annulment, Appeal, Arbitration, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Joinder, Middle East, Uncategorized, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Uncategorized

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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…

Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Domestic Courts

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Hogan Lovells

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…

Arbitration, Portugal, Public Policy

(BCH Advogados)/ /1 Comment

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…

Arbitral seat, Arbitration, Asia-Pacific, Australia, Domestic Courts

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Herbert Smith Freehills

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…

Arbitration, ICCA Miami 2014

(Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Arbitration, Class arbitration, Commercial Arbitration, Investment Arbitration

(Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

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…

Arbitration Awards, Enforcement, Surveys

(The Center for American and International Law)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

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…

Intellectual Property Rights, International Law, Investment Arbitration

(Notre Dame Law School)/ /1 Comment

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…

Expropriation, Investment Arbitration, Political Risk Insurance

(Clyde & Co. LLP)/ /Leave a comment
YIAG

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…

Corruption, Fraud, Investment Arbitration, Jurisdiction, Public Policy, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

(Covington and Burling LLP)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Arbitral Tribunal, Costs, Costs in arbitral proceedings, IBA Guidelines on Party Representation, Sanctions

(González-Bueno & Asociados)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Enforcement, New York Convention, Qatar, Set aside an international arbitral award

(Qatar International Center for Conciliation and Arbitration)/ /Leave a comment

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’…

Arbitration, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Portugal, Treaty

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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…

Arbitration, ICCA Miami 2014

(Holland & Knight LLP)/ /Leave a comment

And so the twenty-second biennial Congress of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration officially comes to an end. But what progress have we made with respect to the challenges facing international arbitration? And, where do we go from here? Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, the Chief Justice of Singapore, delivered his assessment of the progress made…

Arbitrators, Document Exchange, Document Production, ICCA Miami 2014, Interim Orders, Witness

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How can arbitrators ensure the fair exchange of documents, and what role should arbitrators play in calling expert witnesses? When and how, if at all, should interim measures be used in international arbitration proceedings? These questions were tackled during a breakout session titled Arbitral Legitimacy: The User’s and Judge’s Perspectives at the ICCA Miami 2014…

Arbitration, ICCA Miami 2014

(Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP)/ /Leave a comment

The April 8, Plenary Session, chaired by John Barkett (Miami) consisted of several presentations. 1. BG Group v. Argentina Mock Oral Argument There was a mock argument of the BG Group v. Argentina case, where the participants assumed that they were arguing at the U.S. Supreme Court and assumed that the recently issued opinion from…

Enforcement, ICCA Miami 2014, New York Convention

(Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP)/ /Leave a comment

On Monday, April 8, Shook, Hardy and Bacon LLP presented a breakfast program moderated by John Barkett and featuring Frank Cruz-Alvarez, Marike Paulsson, and Sergio Pagliery discussing how to make the New York Convention your best friend. In a nutshell, the panel gave three helpful practice pointers, as discussed below. First, make sure that when…

Disclosure, ICCA Miami 2014, Interim Orders

(Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP)/ /1 Comment

ICCA 2014’s second break-out session of Monday, 7 April, tackled the challenging issues surrounding document production and interim measures in international arbitration. The discussion was informative and the audience participated with pointed questions and comments. The first panel, which addressed the issue of document production, was comprised of Moderator John Barkett and Panelists Stephen L….

Arbitration, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, ICCA Miami 2014

(Gomm & Smith)/ /Leave a comment

In the Justice Stream of Monday, 7 April, a panel of representatives from various arbitral institutions started by addressing the premise as to whether “Arbitral Institutions Can Do More to Further Legitimacy.” They finished grappling with a potential extension of this premise to its outer limits. For many users of the arbitration process, the institution…