The relationship between human rights and investment law is all the rage these days in academia. It seems like every week I come across a PhD student or a young academic who is tackling some aspect of the topic. But, while there are many scholars and writers looking to bridge the two fields, it’s rarer…
On May 6, 2009, the French Supreme Court rendered a decision relating to the consequences of insolvency proceedings commenced in France against a party to pending international arbitration proceedings (Jean X. v. International Company For Commercial Exchanges (Income), May 6, 2009, Case no. 08-10281). A French company had signed three contracts for the sale of…
My colleague Trey Childress has a nice summary of the recent decision by a federal court in Florida in Osorio v. Dole Food Company to refuse to enforce a $97 million Nicaraguan judgment. Here’s the key excerpt of the decision: “the evidence before the Court is that the judgment in this case did not arise…
Summary In a decision of 6 October 2009 (4A.596/2008), the Swiss Federal Tribunal granted revision of a final international arbitral award that was influenced by fraud. This is the first time since the entry into force of the Federal Statute on the Federal Tribunal in 2007, and only the second time since the entry into…
The Decision on Jurisdiction and Competence (19 June 2009) in Tza Yap Shum v. The Republic of Peru (ICSID Case No. ARB/07/6) is noteworthy as the first publicly available decision involving a claim by a Chinese investor under a Chinese investment treaty. The claim is a tangible reminder of the fact that Chinese investors are…
In one of the most recent NAFTA awards, Glamis Gold v. United States, the United States (“US”) raised objections to the tribunal’s “subject matter jurisdiction” against Glamis’ claims of expropriation under NAFTA Chapter 11. The US argued that the Canadian mining company’s claims based on recently passed California legislation were not “ripe” because the legislative…
In a decision of 23 June 2009 (4A_62/2009), the Swiss Federal Supreme Court held that the right to be heard is not violated where an arbitral tribunal bases its decision on a written submission of a third party and the parties to the proceedings had enough time to comment on such written submission.By letter of…
The 9.10.2009 session of the New York Convention subcommittee of the IBA in Madrid saw a lively discussion on the topic of enforcement of annulled arbitral awards. The discussion related to the “Yukos Capital” decision issued by the Amsterdam Court of Appeals in April 2009. The Amsterdam Court of First Instance had previously upheld the…
International arbitration is an odd world of the elite and pampered celebrities and the quiet and unassuming masses. On the one hand there is the glamorous world of investment arbitration. She may be the new kid on the block, but she gets all the attention from the paparazzi. On the other hand, there is the…
Earlier this year, the ICSID ad hoc committee in the Sempra v. Argentina annulment proceedings decided to continue the stay of the enforcement of the tribunal’s award in that case for the duration of the annulment proceedings on the condition that Argentina pay USD 75 million into an escrow account. After Argentina failed to make…
It is always satisfying for an academic when research interests contribute to teaching. So, as I began teaching first year contracts this year, I read the 8 September 2009 award in Azpetrol International Holdings B.V., Azpetrol Group B.V. and Azpetrol Oil Services Group B.V. v. The Republic of Azerbaijan, ICSID Case No. ARB/06/15 (Azpetrol) with…
The Swiss Rules of International Arbitration (the “Swiss Rules”) entered into force on 1 January 2004. These rules were originally adopted by the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Basel, Bern, Geneva, Ticino, Vaud and Zurich, and, most recently, Neuchâtel (the “Chambers”).In the past, these Chambers each had their own, different set of arbitration rules…
For those wondering what the state of the art looks like in the realm of bilateral investment treaty arbitration, you could do worse than browse the Notice of Arbitration filed yesterday in the Chevron v. Ecuador case.
There is a lingering perception amongst the international arbitration community that English courts tend to be more interventionist in relation to arbitration proceedings and awards compared to some of their continental counterparts. In reality, English courts are much less interventionist than some imagine, despite provisions such as section 69 of the Arbitration Act 1996 which…
While litigation and arbitration both entail binding adjudication, the traditional functions of judges and arbitrators diverge in fundamental respects. While judges resolve individual disputes, they also serve a number of secondary functions. For example, in the process of deciding cases, they also supply guidance to parties in future disputes, uphold the public interest, and contribute…
If you ever have the pleasure of visiting Fredericton, New Brunswick – the charming Canadian town where I grew up – you’ll want to spend an afternoon at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. Indeed, thanks to the outcome of a recent arbitration – which has just been upheld on appeal – you’ll see a number of…
(AND WHY A RECENT ENGLISH HIGH COURT DECISION REMINDS US THAT A FINAL, BINDING AND CONCLUSIVE AWARD IS NOT NECESSARILY IMMUNE FROM CHALLENGE) Finality is a fundamental characteristic of arbitration and a key factor that attracts many parties to choose arbitration when providing for a contractual dispute resolution mechanism. This is because the ability to…
In 2006, the ICSID Arbitration Rules were amended to allow a party to make a preliminary objection to claims that are “manifestly without legal merit.” The procedure for this objection is embodied in Rule 41(5). An ICSID Tribunal composed of Dr. Briner (President), Professor Stern and Professor Böckstiegel, in Brandes Investment Partners, LP v. Venezuela…
In modern treaties, a fair and equitable treatment standard (hereinafter “FaETS”) is to be provided to foreign investors and investments by the host state. In the past, the FaETS had been viewed as merely a sub-category of the international minimum standard. However, recent practice and international case law has started taking the view that the…
In 2006, I conducted a review of the most frequently selected arbitrators in the then-pending 103 ICSID cases. (See “Precedent in Investment Treaty Arbitration: A Citation Analysis of a Developing Jurisprudence” (2007), 24 J. Int’l Arb 129). My 2006 review of the 103 pending ICSID cases (ranging from cases registered in February 1997 to November…
The recent ICSID arbitration award in Europe Cement Investment & Trade S.A. v. Turkey raise interesting questions of how to regulate fraud in international arbitration. Here is the key holding of the tribunal with respect to fraud regarding an alleged ownership interest in the relevant companies.
For many years, no broad international consensus emerged on the existing protection for foreign investors as a result of differences of approaches between developed and developing States. As a result of this perceived lack of established customary principles, States concluded thousands of bilateral investment treaties in the 1990s for the promotion and the protection of…
In this case, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court decided that the right to be heard (art. 182 para. 3 of the Swiss Federal Act on International Private Law, “PILA”) does not encompass a right of the parties to be specifically heard with regard to the legal qualification of the facts they had introduced into the…
A recent decision by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has attracted attention within the arbitration community as it puts into question the enforceability in the United States of international arbitration agreements where foreign (non-US) law is the governing substantive law. The Eleventh Circuit also mistakenly references Article V of the New York Convention in…
