Anti-arbitration, Arbitral seat, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Dispute Resolution, International arbitration, Mediation, Uncategorized

(MDisputes)/ /Leave a comment

Construction work at the Florence Chamber of Commerce has forced the city’s arbitration and mediation services to relocate to new offices the city was able to scrounge up. This is the view from the fourth-floor conference room assigned to a mediation I attended yesterday. Talk about coping well in the face of adversity… Throughout many…

Women in arbitration

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A big thank you to everyone who responded to our inaugural poll!  We’ve dusted off our calculators, put on our stats hats and prepared some charts and analysis for you.  But first, here’s a quick backgrounder: Our first poll asked participants to rate three different potential reasons for the long-standing under-representation of women in arbitration:…

Arbitration clause, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Asia-Pacific, Enforcement of an arbitration clause, ICC Arbitration, Singapore International Arbitration Centre

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

In the case of HKL Group Co Ltd v Rizq International Holdings Pte Ltd the Singapore High Court (the “High Court”) has considered whether an arbitration clause in a contract which provided for disputes to be settled by arbitration in Singapore by a non-existent institution under the rules of the ICC was inoperable. The High…

Enforcement, EU Regulation 44/ 2001, Europe, European Law, Jurisdiction

(Colibra Insurance)/ /Leave a comment

Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 (published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 20 December 2012) implements a new, recast version of the Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in…

Africa, BIT, Foreign Investment Law, Investment, Investment agreements

(Mishcon de Reya)/ /Leave a comment

In recent years, African states have taken several initiatives to increase the protection of and legal security offered to foreign investors. However, a lot of work is unfinished and some of it is even frustrated. Some examples. Bilateral Investment Treaties Bilateral investment treaties (‘BITs’) are critical to foreign investors considering investing in Africa. Such BITs…

Africa, Arbitration, Arbitrators, Investment protection

(Lazareff Le Bars)/ /Leave a comment

Over the past decade, Africa has emerged as a leading center of economic growth. From mining and manufacturing, to banking and telecoms, nearly every industry is witnessing rapid expansion in Africa, driven by both African enterprises and businesses from around the world. Naturally, an increase in international commerce has resulted in an attendant increase in…

Appeal, Arbitration Awards, Asia-Pacific, China, Costs, Hong Kong, Set aside an arbitral award, UNCITRAL Model Law

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

By Justin D’Agostino, Martin Wallace and Yi-Shun Teoh The Year of the Snake has begun auspiciously for arbitration in Hong Kong, with a recent decision of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (“CFA”) underlining once again the jurisdiction’s arbitration-friendly credentials and the reluctance of its courts to interfere with the arbitral process and arbitral…

Uncategorized

(Editor in Chief, ASA Bulletin; LALIVE)/ /Leave a comment

By Matthias Scherer and Catherine A. Kunz In a recent decision dated 21 December 2012 (5A_355/2012), the Swiss Federal Supreme Court clarified the conditions for obtaining a freezing order for the purpose of enforcing an arbitral award or a foreign court decision.  The decision, which will be published in the forthcoming ASA Bulletin 2.2013 with…

Arbitration, Competition Law, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /1 Comment

The vexed question of the arbitrability vel non of competition law has now reached the shores of the United Arab Emirates. Readers will, of course, be aware that this question has been answered in the affirmative – and most will agree rightly so – in the world’s leading arbitration jurisdictions, in particular in Europe and…

Advocacy, Arbitration, Dispute Resolution, International Courts

(International Moot Court Competition Association (IMCCA))/ /1 Comment

and Stanka Cherkezova With the finals of the Philip C. Jessup and Willem C. Vis Moot approaching it is a good time to spend a few words on oral advocacy and persuasion which are indispensable to moot-courting and real life career as well. A judge from the International Court of Justice once said that he…

Book Review

(Notre Dame Law School)/ /1 Comment

Gary Born’s latest addition to the international arbitration literature, International Arbitration: Law and Practice, is a nice bookend to his magisterial two-volume work on the same subject. Rather than simply condense his 3,000 page tome into a 500-page summary, he has done something completely different: offer a concise, ready-reference, black-letter guide to international arbitration. The…

Evidence, International Courts, Investment Arbitration, North America, Section 1782 Discovery

(Notre Dame Law School)/ /Leave a comment

I have posted on SSRN my latest article, “Ancillary Discovery to Prove Denial of Justice” just published in the Virginia Journal of International Law. It analyzes Section 1782 discovery proceedings in the context of BIT arbitration and argues that there is now uniform agreement among federal courts that investment arbitration panels are “international tribunals” within…

Book Review, Commercial Arbitration, United States

(Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /Leave a comment
WilmerHale

Winter holidays invite fun reading, including good professional reading, that most of the rest of the year forbids. Not exactly beach reads, but the same idea. And, this year, readers from the United States with interests in international arbitration, had their choice among a host of new offerings. Three warrant special mention. First, Professor Bo…

Annulment, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, arbitrators’ conduct, ICSID Convention, Investment Arbitration

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

An earlier post examined the general limitations on arbitral discretion. This part will look into the question of actions taken proprio motu and the limits thereto. Functions exercisable proprio motu are perceived as a special case of application of the discretionary powers enjoyed by a tribunal. Actions taken proprio motu must be distinguished from functions…

Foreign Investment Law, International arbitration, Investment, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection

(Investment Arbitration Reporter)/ /Leave a comment

In an earlier post, I’d highlighted five notable legal highlights from 2012. Below, and somewhat belatedly, I offer my post-mortem on some key policy developments from 2012. 1. Venezuela and South Africa beat a retreat Venezuela’s exit from ICSID was perhaps the most visible policy story of 2012. The move could bolster the caseload of…

Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Proceedings, Middle East, New York Convention, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

Those who feared that following Sir David Steel J’s ruling in Injazat Capital Limited and Injazat Technology Fund B.S.C. v. Denton Wilde Sapte & Co before the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Court of First Instance (ruling of 6 March 2012 in Claim No. CFI 019/2010, for previous reporting see here), the DIFC Courts and…

Damages, International arbitration, International Law, UN and Int’l Organizations

(Khrenov & Partners)/ /Leave a comment

Last year, international media reported that the Ministry of Defense of Iran and Aerospace Industries Organization have commenced an arbitration against their Russian state-owned defense contractor Rosoboronexport over the latter’s refusal to deliver five batteries of the potent S-300 surface-to-air missiles under the contract signed back in 2007. Following the adoption of UN Security Council…

Annulment, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, arbitrators’ conduct, Damages, ICSID Convention, Investment Arbitration

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

The problem of arbitral discretion has major implications on the rights of the parties. It is a concept foundational to international arbitration. Yet, it has proven to be so elusive as to escape any definition or treatment in literature. Why is this topic important? In order to answer this question, let us take pre-award interest…

Arbitral Tribunal, Arbitration Awards, Arbitrator Challenges, Arbitrators

(Schellenberg Wittmer)/ /3 Comments
Schellenberg Wittmer

Co-authored by Christopher Boog and Benjamin Moss, Schellenberg Wittmer An arbitral tribunal’s duty to render an enforceable award is frequently used by commentators and counsel alike in support of positions on myriad matters ranging from procedural fairness and jurisdiction to the application of mandatory foreign law. Its considerable malleability has indeed made it very attractive…

Argentina, ICSID Convention, Investment, South America

(Stockholm University)/ /Leave a comment

So you placed your bets on Argentina’s recovery after the 2001 crisis? It is not too late to give it another thought. While Argentina’s economy grew by approximately 9 percent in 2011, it fell dramatically in 2012 to around 3 percent. The (unofficial) inflation rate is set to 25% and the dollar reached a staggering…

Arbitral seat, Arbitration, Enforcement, Uncategorized

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

If the answer is London, Paris, Geneva, New York, Tokyo and Singapore, what is the question? International cities? Fashion hot spots? Location of Manchester United supporters’ clubs? It may well be the answer to all three questions (although I confess that I have not actually checked the Manchester United one), but they are also the…

Asia-Pacific, Foreign Investment Law, Investment, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Legislation

(Mishcon de Reya)/ /Leave a comment

On 2 November 2012, President Thein Sein approved, after several months of intense debate between Parliament and the Government, Myanmar’s new Foreign Investment Law (‘FIL’ or ‘the Law’).  The new Law revises the framework for foreign investment in Myanmar which had been in place since a military coup in 1988. Considering the country’s abundant natural…