Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Proceedings, Investment Arbitration, Jurisdiction

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

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…

Arbitration Institutions and Rules

(von Segesser Law Offices)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, Enforcement, Europe, Legal Practice, National Arbitration Laws

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

Investment Arbitration, Legal Practice, Public Policy

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

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…

Arbitration Awards

(Baker & McKenzie)/ /2 Comments
YIAG

(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…

Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Proceedings, Investment Arbitration, Other Issues

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

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…

Investment Arbitration

(Stylopoulos & Associates)/ /1 Comment

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…

Arbitration Proceedings, Arbitrators

(Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP)/ /1 Comment
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

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…

Arbitration Awards, International Legal Theory and Teaching, Investment Arbitration, Legal Practice

(University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, Civil Law Section)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Domestic Courts, Europe, Legal Practice

(von Segesser Law Offices)/ /Leave a comment

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…

Commercial Arbitration, Domestic Courts, Legal Practice, North America

(White & Case LLP)/ /3 Comments
White & Case

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…

Arbitration Awards, Domestic Courts, New York Convention

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

The English Court of Appeal recently upheld a first instance decision to refuse enforcement of a US$20m New York Convention award in Dallah Estate and Tourism Holding Company v The Ministry of Religious Affairs, Government of Pakistan [2009] EWCA Civ 755, on the basis that the arbitration agreement was ‘not valid’ for the purposes of…

Investment Arbitration

(Investment Arbitration Reporter)/ /1 Comment

One set of international arbitrations which don’t get enough attention are the series of claims mounted under NAFTA Chapter 11 by US investors in the Mexican sweetener industry. A group of agri-business heavyweights, including Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, Tate & Lyle have all invoked NAFTA’s investment protections in order to challenge a Mexican tax levied…

Arbitration Institutions and Rules, Arbitration Proceedings, Arbitrators, Investment Arbitration, Legal Practice, Public Policy

(School of International Arbitration, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL))/ /Leave a comment
Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA)

One can observe two rather opposing trends. On the one hand there is a steady (and more recently significant) increase in the number of arbitration cases; one the other hand there is a rather systematic criticism expressed by certain voices, predominately in the corporate world.Most well established institutions have recorded a 10% increase in their…

Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Proceedings, Arbitrators, Domestic Courts, Europe, National Arbitration Laws

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

Introduction If a party during arbitral proceedings withdraws its claim and the other party does not exercise its right to request an award in respect of the withdrawn claim, it has been suggested in Swedish legal doctrine that the parties, under certain circumstances, may have implicitly agreed that the arbitration agreement shall cease to be…

Investment Arbitration

(Investment Arbitration Reporter)/ /Leave a comment

In the latest twist in the ongoing war between foreign investors and the Republic of Argentina, a panel at the International centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has lifted a stay on a $128 Million arbitral award. US energy company, Sempra, won its arbitration with Argentina in 2007, when arbitrators ruled that measures taken…

Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Proceedings, Investment Arbitration, Jurisdiction

(Debevoise & Plimpton LLP)/ /Leave a comment
American Society of International Law (ASIL)

Article 25 of the ICSID Convention, which draws the outer limits for the exercise of ICSID jurisdiction, does not define the concepts of “nationality” and “investment.” Aaron Broches, the principal author of the Convention, explains that this reflects a deliberate decision by the drafters to leave the choice of what constitutes an investment and who…

Arbitration Proceedings, Investment Arbitration

(University College Cork)/ /Leave a comment

As previously reported, in a decision rendered on 15 April 2009, an ICSID Tribunal declined jurisdiction to hear claims submitted by Phoenix Action Ltd (“Phoenix”) against the Czech Republic. Phoenix, an Israeli company, purchased two Czech companies, Benet Praha and Benet Group, in 2002 while these two companies were involved in ongoing legal disputes. The…

Domestic Courts, Europe, Legal Practice, Public Policy

(von Segesser Law Offices)/ /1 Comment

In the same arbitration proceedings, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court had to decide twice -albeit based on different grounds – whether facts discovered after the issue of an award (so called “nova”) may entail the amendment of the rendered award. In these decisions the Swiss Federal Supreme Court had the opportunity to restate its rigorous…

Arbitration Proceedings, Commercial Arbitration, Europe, National Arbitration Laws, Res Judicata

(Notre Dame Law School)/ /Leave a comment

I have been reading with interest the ILA’s Final Report and Recommendation on Res Judicata and Arbitration adopted at the 2006 Toronto conference. Recommendation 2 provides that: The conclusive and preclusive effects of arbitral awards in further arbitral proceedings set forth below need not necessarily be governed by national law and may be governed by…

Arbitration Awards, Enforcement, New York Convention, Other Issues

(White & Case LLP)/ /2 Comments
White & Case

Given the fundamental nature of the exceptions to the recognition and enforcement under the New York Convention (the “Convention”) it should not be forgotten that their application is in fact discretionary: Article V.1 of the Convention states that “Recognition and enforcement of the award may be refused at the request of the party against whom…