Climate change, Environment, ESG, Investment Disputes, Investment protection, Investor-State arbitration, Investor-state tribunals, Sustainability, Sustainable economy

, , (King & Wood Mallesons)/ /Leave a comment

Following our previous post on dispute resolution in carbon markets, the ICSID Tribunal in Koch Industries, Inc. and Koch Supply & Trading, LP v. Canada, ICSID Case No. ARB/20/52 (“Koch v. Canada”) recently dismissed the Claimants’ USD 31.3 million claims arising out of a cap-and-trade emissions programme on jurisdictional grounds. The Tribunal’s key findings included…

CJEU, ECT Withdrawal, Energy Charter Treaty, EU Law, European Court of Justice

(LALIVE)/ /Leave a comment

In a judgment dated 3 April 2024, the Swiss Supreme Court (the “SSC”) rejected Spain’s challenge of an arbitral award rendered in an intra-EU arbitration under the Energy Charter Treaty (the “ECT”). This post addresses the most salient point of this decision, i.e. the SSC’s rejection of the Achmea and Komstroy judgments of the Court…

Jurisdiction, Non-signatory, United States Courts

(UCLA)/ /Leave a comment

On March 11, 2024, in Swinerton Builders, Inc. v. Argonaut Insurance Company, a district court in the Ninth Circuit found a valid arbitration agreement between the contractor, Swinerton Builders, Inc. (“Swinerton”), and the non-signatory insurer, Argonaut Insurance Co. (“Argonaut”), of its subcontractor, Northern Services, Inc. (“Northern”). No. 23-CV-4158 (DMR), 2024 WL 1057473 (N.D. Cal. Mar….

DIAC, Enforceability, Enforcement, Enforcement of arbitration agreement, MENA, New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /1 Comment

Two recent judgments, one from the United States (US) District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (“Louisiana Court”) and another from the Singapore High Court (“Singapore Court”), have highlighted the difficulties that Decree No. 34/2021(Concerning the Dubai International Arbitration Centre) (“Decree No. 34/2021”) may cause to the enforceability of DIFC-LCIA arbitration clauses in arbitrations…

Enforcement, English Law, UK

(A&O Shearman)/ /Leave a comment

On 14 April 2024, the English Commercial Court granted Crescent Gas Corporation Limited (“CGC”) ownership of a London property to assist it (partially) to recover a USD 2.6 billion judgment debt owed by the National Iranian Oil Company (“NIOC”).  This post explores the court’s decision and key takeaways for practitioners particularly regarding enforcement strategies.  …

Advisory Centre, UNCITRAL, UNCITRAL WG III Series, UNCITRAL WG3 Series

(Luxembourg Centre for European Law (LCEL), University of Luxembourg)/ /Leave a comment

UNCITRAL Working Group III (“WGIII”) on Investor-State Dispute Settlement (“ISDS”) Reform convened for its 48th session in April 2024 in New York to continue its work, among others, on the establishment of an advisory centre (“AC”) on international investment dispute resolution (“IIDR”). In light of the discussions during the past three sessions from October 2023…

Adverse Inference, Arbitrator Bias, Decision Making, International arbitration

(Creel, García-Cuéllar, Aiza y Enríquez)/ /Leave a comment

Mid-hearing, the Arbitral Tribunal in Sea Search-Armada, LLC v. The Republic of Colombia (PCA Case 2023-37) received an application for intervention from the Kingdom of Spain. The letter asserted Spain’s claim to certain rights over the San José Galeon, a “Spanish Navy warship sunk in naval combat against an English squadron in 1708” near the…

Belgium, BIT, Court of Appeal, Enforcement, Final Award, Poland, Public Policy, Set aside an arbitral award

(Crowell & Moring) and (A&O Shearman)/ /Leave a comment

The Brussels first instance court attracted significant attention in 2022 by deciding to set aside an UNCITRAL award regarding a claim brought against the Republic of Poland under the US-Poland bilateral investment treaty (“US-Poland BIT”).  This was the first time we had seen a Belgian court set aside an investment treaty award.  The first instance…

Africa, Conference, LIDW 2024

(Trinity International LLP)/ /Leave a comment

As investors increasingly look to diversify their investments whilst seeking higher returns, and emerging nations continue the push to industrialise, to develop their infrastructure and to grow their economies, the emerging economies have become a hotbed of activity for investors, developers, and legal professionals around the world. This post considers why all eyes seem to…

CIArb, Climate change, Commercial Arbitration, Conference, Investor-State arbitration

(Erasmus University Rotterdam)/ /Leave a comment

On 6 February 2024, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CiArb) European Branch/French Chapter held a seminar at the Paris office of Bird & Bird moderated by Jalal El Ahdab (Bird&Bird) and Alexandre Malan (Belot Malan & Associés) on a crucial topic: Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) issues and their impact on international arbitration. The panel discussion…

Arbitration Agreement, Arbitration clause, Arbitration institution, Europe, Netherlands

, (Houthoff)/ /1 Comment

On 21 February 2024, the District Court of Amsterdam (“the court”) rendered a decision in summary proceedings. The key question that arose from this decision was: Can parties facing an unclear arbitration agreement ask the national courts to resolve their disputes instead? The issue of ambiguity surrounding arbitration agreements is not a novel phenomenon (see,…

Due process, German Federal Constitutional Court, Germany

(University of Konstanz)/ /Leave a comment

The analysis of the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht – the “Court”) dated 3 June 2022 (1 BvR 2103/16) in the Pechstein case (the “Pechstein Decision”, also covered in a previous post) shows constitutional limits to arbitration agreements that are externally determined, i.e., agreements whose content can be de facto determined unilaterally by…

California International Arbitration Week, Technology

(Devlin Law Firm) and (Quandary Peak Research)/ /Leave a comment

On March 14, 2024, the 3rd California International Arbitration Week featured an event titled ‘Resolving Tomorrow’s Conflicts Today: An In-House Perspective on Technology Disputes from the Tech Mecca,’ organized by California Arbitration and the California Lawyers Association and hosted at JAMS. The session, moderated by Hon. James Ware (Arbitrator/Mediator, JAMS), included speakers such as Barbara…

Artificial Intelligence, California International Arbitration Week

(California Arbitration Membership Committee) and / /Leave a comment

On March 14, 2024, as part of the 3rd Annual California International Arbitration Week, the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center (SVAMC) sponsored a roundtable discussion about the recently proposed SVAMC Guidelines on the Use of AI in Arbitration and the SVAMC AI Task Force’s efforts to build consensus and engagement among the global ADR…

Artificial Intelligence, ICCA, ICCA Hong Kong 2024, Innovation

(CMS Hasche Sigle, Hong Kong LLP) and (The University of Hong Kong)/ /Leave a comment

This is the fourth post in ICCA’s series of reports on the ICCA 2024 Congress (“Congress”). It reports on the last day of the Congress on Wednesday, 8 May 2024, which looked at the present and into the future to determine how new technologies may shape the human experience in international arbitration.   International Arbitration:…

Brazil, Latin America

(Souto, Correa, Cesa, Lummertz & Amaral Advogados)/ /Leave a comment

Previous posts have addressed advocacy techniques in arbitration (for example, see here, here, here, here, and here). This is not an attempt to summarize them, but rather to present the topic in a different light. As psychologists have long discovered, information that provides imagery and vividness has a greater impact on inferences and memory retention….

Advocacy, Arbitration Procedure, Costs in arbitral proceedings, Ethics, ICCA, ICCA Hong Kong 2024

, (CMS Hasche Sigle, Hong Kong LLP), (The University of Hong Kong), (Tanner De Witt), and / /Leave a comment

This is the third post in ICCA’s series of reports on the ICCA 2024 Congress (“Congress”), which took place in Hong Kong. This post reports on the events of Tuesday, 7 May 2024, the second full day of the Congress. As noted in the coverage of Day 1 of the Congress, the theme of this…

Arbitrator's decision-making, Arbitrators, Bias, Culture, ICCA, ICCA Hong Kong 2024, New York Convention, sociology of international arbitration

, (CMS Hasche Sigle, Hong Kong LLP), (Tanner De Witt), (The University of Hong Kong), and / /Leave a comment

This is the second post in ICCA’s series of reports on the ICCA 2024 Congress (“Congress”), which took place in Hong Kong. This post reports on the events of Monday, 6 May 2024, the first full day of the Congress. As informed by ICCA President, Dr Stanimir Alexandrov, in the opening post to this series,…

Arbitration institution, Artificial Intelligence, ICCA, ICCA Hong Kong 2024

(Queen Mary University of London) and , (MDisputes)/ /Leave a comment

The short answer to the title of this post is that while a few institutions have already begun to employ artificial intelligence (“AI”), most are in a wait-and-see-and-explore mode as they consider whether and how to make use of it. Most of the current institutional interest in AI is in areas that law and technology…

Appointment of arbitrators, Conflicts of interest, Disclosure, IBA, IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest

, (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP)/ /Leave a comment

In February 2024, the Arbitration Committee of the International Bar Association (“IBA”) released a revised version of the IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration (the “2024 IBA Guidelines” or the “Revised Guidelines”). First published in 2004 (the “2004 IBA Guidelines”) and then revised in 2014 (the “2014 IBA Guidelines”) (collectively, the “IBA…

Articles of State Responsibility, Artificial Intelligence, Delhi Arbitration Week, Enforcement, Immunity, India, Technology

(DSK Legal), , (Skywards Law), and (AZB and Partners)/ /Leave a comment

The Delhi Arbitration Week (“DAW”) 2024 that took place from 6 to 10 March 2024 featured two panel discussions that focused on emerging issues such as state owned entities (“SOEs”) and the role of technology in arbitration. The panel discussions came into play at a time when there have been significant developments and challenges globally…

Delhi Arbitration Week, India

(DSK Legal), (AZB and Partners), and (Skywards Law)/ /Leave a comment

The Delhi Arbitration Weekend (“DAW”) 2024 that took place from 6 to 10 March 2024 witnessed two back-to-back panels on Investor-State Dispute Settlement (“ISDS”). These sessions deliberated on the past, present and future of ISDS from an Indian and global perspective. This post captures the discussions from the two ISDS panels at the DAW titled,…

Delhi Arbitration Week, India

, , (Skywards Law)/ /Leave a comment

The Delhi Arbitration Weekend (“DAW”) returned for its second edition from 6 to 10 March 2024. For the first time, the event received the patronage of the Supreme Court of India, with Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, serving as one of the keynote speakers and the Patron-in-Chief for the DAW. Other keynote speakers included Justice Judith…

ICCA, ICCA Hong Kong 2024

(International Council for Commercial Arbitration)/ /Leave a comment

ICCA is delighted to open its 26th biennial Congress in Hong Kong today. The Congress, taking place from 5 to 8 May 2024, consists of today’s opening ceremony, followed by three full days of engaging sessions for participants and speakers. For over 60 years, ICCA has been bringing the international arbitration community together to discuss…