Anti-arbitration, Appointment of arbitrators, Arbitral seat, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Arbitration Proceedings, Dispute resolution clause, International arbitration

(MDisputes)/ /4 Comments

The Arab Spring transforming the societies of the Middle East has raised more than a few questions among us in-house folk about what this will mean for dispute resolution in the region. Will civil institutions, in particular the courts, be a reliable mechanism in the coming years for upholding contractual rights, including agreements to arbitrate…

Arbitral seat, Arbitration, Arbitration Act, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Awards, Commercial Arbitration, Disclosure, International arbitration, National Arbitration Laws, Seat of the arbitration

(White & Case LLP)/ /1 Comment
White & Case

Clear tendencies towards an arbitration-friendly approach have been demonstrated by the Swedish Supreme Court during the latter part of 2010. During this term the Supreme Court has repeatedly taken an arbitration-friendly stance and emphasized that Swedish arbitration law and practice ought to be in line with international best practice in arbitration. Sweden has a long-standing…

BIT, Confidentiality and Transparency, Foreign Investment Law, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Transparency in investment arbitrations

(University of Victoria Faculty of Law)/ /Leave a comment

The OECD-hosted Freedom of Investment (FOI) Roundtable is in the process of finalizing a statement regarding the role of international investment in supporting the realization of countries’ green growth objectives.  The draft statement entitled “Harnessing Freedom of Investment for Green Growth” (Draft Statement) and three draft background consultation papers (Draft Papers) are available on the…

New York Convention, Public Policy

(Allen & Overy LLP)/ /Leave a comment

The public policy exception under Article V(2)(b) of the New York Convention is well recognised as the amorphous exception. To the extent it has been capable of definition, it has been found to embrace nebulous concepts such as a state’s most basic notions of morality and justice. No doubt it is for this reason that…

Arbitral seat, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration clause, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings

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

In recent years, an increasing number of parties to arbitration clauses providing for CIETAC arbitration in mainland China have chosen to take advantage of Article 4.2 of the CIETAC Rules, which allows parties to adopt “other arbitration rules” as the applicable rules of the arbitration. The underlying reason for this trend is simple: Article 4.2…

Arbitration Act, Arbitration Proceedings, Asia-Pacific, English Law, Jurisdiction, UNCITRAL Model Law

(Norton Rose Fulbright)/ /Leave a comment
YSIAC

Will a court injunct arbitral proceedings if parties, before an arbitration hearing, allegedly reach a settlement agreement and a dispute subsequently arises over the existence of such an agreement? Is the tribunal functus? Recently, the Singapore High Court in Doshion Ltd v Sembawang Engineers and Constructors Pte Ltd [2011] SGHC 46 (“Doshion”) rightly held that…

Due process, Europe, Sport arbitration

(Perréard de Boccard)/ /Leave a comment

Sports arbitration is becoming an increasingly important field. In Switzerland, where the Court for Arbitration for Sports is located, the Swiss Supreme Court is seeing lately nearly half of its cases coming from the CAS. Sports arbitration, however, gives rise to a specific concern with respect to the issue of consent. Often, athletes find themselves…

Book Review

(Notre Dame Law School)/ /1 Comment

Gary Born has just published a great new casebook that is certain to become a standard text for international arbitration courses around the world. Everyone knows Born’s multi-volume treatise, which is invaluable as a reference tool, but hardly appropriate for the classroom. Now we have both, a great casebook to introduce the material to students…

Arbitration clause, Arbitrators, Disclosure, Domestic Courts, IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest, Jurisdiction, LCIA Arbitration, Provisional measures, Russia

(Enyo Law LLP)/ /2 Comments
Herbert Smith Freehills

While Russia is a signatory to the New York Convention, there is a perception amongst some practitioners and arbitration users that Russia is not an arbitration friendly jurisdiction. This viewpoint is, no doubt, due to a perceived scepticism of the Russian courts and is the driving force behind many foreign investors doing business in Russia…

Arbitration, Arbitration Act, Commercial Arbitration, Europe, International arbitration, Legislation, National Arbitration Laws

(White & Case LLP)/ /Leave a comment
White & Case

The new French arbitration law, published on 14 January 2011, further reinforces Paris’ position as a leading arbitration centre. The new law, which comes thirty years after the previous 1980 law regarding domestic arbitration and the 1981 law dealing with international arbitration, maintains the distinction between domestic and international arbitration. It clarifies and enhances an…

Asia-Pacific, Expedited arbitration, Singapore International Arbitration Centre

(King & Spalding)/ /Leave a comment

The SIAC dispenses hospitality to the legal profession in Singapore on a regular basis, as part of its “outreach” efforts to what I suppose we can describe as its local client base. The latest of these events took place at the end of January at the Helipad — a dimly lit bar with, disappointingly, no…

draft Restatement, New York Convention, North America, United States

(Wayne State University)/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

On March 23, in Washington, DC, the Institute for Transnational Arbitration and the American Society of International Law will co-host a conference on “Fault Lines in International Commercial Arbitration.” Building on the American Law Institute’s draft Restatement of the U.S. Law on International Commercial Arbitration, Gary Born, Jan Paulsson, J. William Rowley, QC, Linda Silberman,…

Investment Arbitration

(Notre Dame Law School)/ /2 Comments

As I discussed yesterday, an Ecuador Court has issued an $8.6 billion judgment against Chevron. I just got off a press conference call with plaintiff’s chief lawyer in Ecuador, Pablo Fajardo. He stated that the plaintiffs will seek enforcement of the Lago Agrio judgment throughout the world as soon as the Ecuador appeals process is…

Arbitrators, Conciliation, Mediation

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

Should arbitrators be permitted to serve as mediators of the disputes they might ultimately determine? Instinctive reactions to this question are likely to be coloured by a party’s legal background and cultural expectations. To those from common law traditions, the idea of combining the roles of mediator and arbitrator is rather alien, whereas in civil…

Anti-suit injunction, Arbitration Awards, ICSID Convention, Investment Arbitration

(Notre Dame Law School)/ /1 Comment

Today an Ecuador court fined Chevron $8.6 billion for environmental damage. According to the Wall Street Journal, $5.4 billion of that is to restore polluted soil, $1.4 billion to create a health system for the community, $800 million to treat individuals injured by the pollution, $600 million to restore polluted waters, $200 million to restore…

Anti-arbitration, Arbitration, International arbitration

(MDisputes)/ /Leave a comment

The goal had seemed an impossible one for many years. And then, recently, a tribunal in Berlin came close to breaking the famed barrier. Their noble effort was thwarted only by the Teutonic lapse of the chair who, on the verge of declaring the proceedings closed at 4 minutes and 43 seconds, spontaneously suggested terms…

Enforcement, English Law

(Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /2 Comments
WilmerHale

The recent Commercial Court decision of A v B [2010] EWHC 3302 (Comm) (16 December 2010) is notable for two reasons. Firstly, the Commercial Court provided clarification of the requirements for pursuing an application for security under section 70(7) of the Arbitration Act 1996. Secondly, the decision is an indication of how the Supreme Court…

International arbitration

(Essex Court Chambers)/ /5 Comments
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

During the last quarter of 2010 the German Arbitration Institution (‘DIS’) and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (‘CIAarb’) held a conference in Frankfurt to debate the relative merits of the ways in which civil law/common law court procedures are adopted or adapted for use in international arbitrations. One of the more interesting sessions was devoted…

Arbitration, Financial statements

(FTI Forensic and Litigation Consulting)/ /1 Comment

According to a well-placed contact at a major arbitral institute, a significant proportion of new arbitration matters involve post-acquisition disputes; in particular, claims brought against vendors of businesses who are accused of having misrepresented, sometimes fraudulently, an acquired business’s true financial position. Many of these claims relate to transactions carried out at the peak of…

Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, BIT, Investment Arbitration, Jurisdiction

(White & Case LLP)/ /1 Comment
White & Case

On December 1, 2010, an ICSID tribunal composed of Sir Franklin Berman (President), Prof. Emmanuel Gaillard, and J. Christopher Thomas, QC, in Global Trading Resource Corp. and Globex International, Inc. v. Ukraine [Disclosure: White & Case LLP was counsel to Ukraine in this case], became the first tribunal ever to dismiss a case under the…

Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Proceedings

, (Arzinger)/ /1 Comment

Introduction On 1 December 2010 an Arbitral Tribunal, constituted under the auspices of the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) delivered its award in the case Global Trading Resource Corp. and Globex International, Inc. vs. Ukraine. The Tribunal decided to dismiss all claims filed by Global Trading Resources Corp. and Globex International Inc….

Arbitration Proceedings, Arbitrators, Commercial Arbitration, Public Policy

(von Segesser Law Offices)/ /2 Comments

In a landmark decision dated 29 October 2010, published on 19 November 2010 (case 4A_234/2010), the Swiss Federal Tribunal dismissed a motion to set aside a Court of Arbitration for Sport (“CAS”) award based on the alleged impartiality of one of the co-arbitrators. The Court firstly clarified that the independence and impartiality expected from any…

BIT, Foreign Investment Law, Investment Arbitration, South America, Venezuela

(University of Victoria Faculty of Law)/ /Leave a comment

Two ICSID tribunals have now weighed in on the much-debated question of whether Art. 22 of Venezuela’s Foreign Investment Law provides Venezuela’s consent to ICSID arbitration. In Decisions on Jurisdiction dated June and December 2010, the Mobil and Cemex tribunals (both presided by the former president of the ICJ, Judge Gilbert Guillaume), rejected investors’ submissions…

Annulment, Appeal, Arbitration Act, Arbitration Agreements, Enforcement, Estoppel, France

(ArbBoutique & Queen Mary University of London)/ /1 Comment

On Thursday, 13 January 2011, France revealed its long-awaited new arbitration law. The décret n° 2011-48 portant réforme de l’arbitrage, was published in France’s Official Journal, alongside a report commenting on the reform. The new law can be found here, as well as the accompanying commentary here. The reform concerns both domestic and international arbitration…