Getting over the skepticism. Since the International Bar Association adopted its Rules for Investor-State Mediation last October, there has been an uptick in discussions regarding the topic, including a mock mediation panel presented this spring during the American Society of International Law’s Annual Meeting. Nonetheless, investor-State mediation still faces skepticism from many arbitration professionals, both…
Kluwer Arbitration and Kluwer Law International are delighted to announce that the inaugural Kluwer Arbitration User Forum will be held in London (at the International Dispute Resolution Centre (IDRC), 70 Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 1EU) on Tuesday 10th September. This (free) half-day event, will be open to all London-based users of Kluwer Arbitration. With summer…
The facts On January 9, 2008, in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest, the dam of a hydroelectric power plant ruptured liberating 3.1 billion liters of water and precipitating an environmental mishap. Brazilian authorities hastily cornered the electricity generation company. The electricity generation company hastily pointed the finger at the builder of the hydroelectric power…
Article 52(4) of the ICSID Convention identifies the provisions of the Convention that apply, mutatis mutandis, to annulment proceedings: “[t]he provisions of Articles 41–45, 48, 49, 53 and 54, and of Chapters VI and VII . . . .” While there is wide agreement that an annulment committee may neither “amend or replace the award…
On April 18, 2013, the Colombian Council of State –Consejo de Estado– changed its previous case law, regarding the waiver of arbitration agreements concluded between public state entities and private contractors. Prior to this decision, the parties could waive arbitration by presenting their case before an administrative court of law, in so far none of…
Over the last two decades the world has witnessed a spectacular growth of investor-state dispute resolution by arbitration (i.e. from a few dozen in 1992 shooting up to 514 cases by the end of 2012). But that trend could stall in the foreseeable future with the realization of the users that international arbitration (investor-state arbitration,…
By Alessandro Villani and Manuela Caccialanza One of the more debated issues in the process of the implementation and review of Regulation No. 44/2001 (“Brussels Regulation”) was the general exclusion of arbitration from the matters covered by the Brussels Regulation. The debate about the opportunity to mitigate such exclusion arises from the subsequent difficulty in…
and Amgad T Husein, Dentons (Managing Partner, Saudi Arabia) 1. Overview Since the enactment of Saudi Arabia’s new Arbitration Law in July 2012, more foreign investors have opted for arbitration in Saudi Arabia rather than in foreign forums. By simplifying dispute resolution and streamlining the enforcement of arbitral awards, the Arbitration Law has sought to…
The Danish Institute of Arbitration (“DIA”) revised its rules effective May 1, 2013, an overhaul from the prior 2008 iteration of its rules that brings the DIA rules into line with those of leading arbitral institutions. As part of these revisions, the DIA has both reorganized the structure of its rules and updated various key…
The recent Rompetrol Group NV v Romania award provides rare guidance as to the requirements to be satisfied for a successful treaty claim arising from State conduct against individual company officers rather than the claimant investor itself. The investor claimed, inter alia, that the arrest, detention, criminal investigations and wire-tapping of its directors constituted State-sponsored…
When the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 1985, “uniformity of the law of arbitral procedures” was a stated purpose. The uncertainty produced by the disparity among the national laws was one of the drafters’ concerns. The other was the inadequacy of domestic laws to…
On April 22, 2013, representatives of Members States of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (“ALBA” for its acronym in Spanish) met in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the manner in which their interests are affected by the activities carried out by transnational companies, under a reunion known as the…
“America’s important security alliances across the Pacific need an economic underpinning.” Ambassador Robert Zoellick, May 1, 2013 To use one of the Obama Administration’s favorite terms, the entry of Japan in April 2013 into the three-year-old Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations later this year is a “game-changer.” Prior to Japan’s commitment as the 12th TPP partner,…
As reported yesterday, the recent tragedies in Bangladesh factories have resulted in a major breakthrough with the signing of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. Thus far, leading retailers such as H&M, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Benetton, and Calvin Klein are on board. Notably absent from the list are leading U.S….
The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”) has issued new rules that came into force on April 1, 2013. The rules changes are accompanied by new Practice Notes for cases administered by SIAC under its rules and the UNCITRAL rules that also came into force on the same date. While the changes do not reflect a…
And Anand Varu. In Omnipharm Limited v Merial [2013] EWCA Civ 2, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales (CA) upheld a first instance decision to revoke one of Merial’s patents on grounds of insufficiency. The CA also dismissed Merial’s appeal against an order to pay 40% of Omnipharm’s costs and awarded costs to…
and Oleg Temnikov I. Bureau Veritas v. Republic of Paraguay In the recent Further decision on objections to jurisdiction dated October 9, 2012 the tribunal in Bureau Veritas, Inspection, Valuation, Assessment and Control, BIVAC B.V. v. Paraguay (ICSID Case No. ARB/07/9) dismissed BIVAC’s claim based on violation of the fair and equitable standard by reasoning…
and José Roberto Oliva Junior and Ricardo Dalmaso Marques, Pinheiro Neto Advogados One of the segments of the infrastructure sectors in Brazil that have lately triggered the greatest amount of disputes are the power generation, distribution and trading sectors. In effect, there’s little disagreement in Brazil nowadays that, just as with other sectors that could…
Shanghai’s Recent Reaction As a recent development of the ongoing conflicts within the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration (CIETAC), the CIETAC Shanghai Sub-Commission has now officially been renamed Shanghai International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission; it will also use Shanghai International Arbitration Center (“SHIAC”) concurrently as official name. (See official announcement of the…
In Part I it was argued that the proper law applicable in the investor-State disputes under Article 42 (1) ICSID Convention depends on the substantive grounds of the investor’s claim. In support of this, I have outlined three factual scenarios and types of claims with evidence from case law. Part I dealt with host State…
At the beginning of April, the Brazilian Senate established a Committee for the modification of the Brazilian Arbitration Law – Law no. 9.307 of September 1996. The president of the Committee, Luís Felipe Salomão, believes that the new amendments will strengthen arbitration, as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism. Salomão suggests that the goal of these…
This week 170 garment workers in Bangladesh died after the Rana Plaza building collapsed. A few months ago 112 garment workers in Bangladesh died after the Tazreen Fashions garment factory was destroyed by fire. Both tragedies were the result of inadequate fire and safety standards. These tragedies could not have come at a worst time…
and Thomas Baconin, Orange, trainee in International Expertise & Conflict Resolution, Litigation, CSR & Real Estate On the 15th of April in the prestigious venue of the Hotel de Ville in Paris, the non-profit organization Paris Place d’Arbitrage introduced its new ad hoc “Paris Arbitration Rules”, in front of 200 law practitioners from the arbitration…
An important issue for any business engaged in international transactions is the ability to obtain effective relief if it becomes involved in legal proceedings. A key benefit of international arbitration is the ability of successful parties to enforce awards across multiple jurisdictions, which is made easier because of the 1958 New York Convention on the…
