Amidst the turmoil surrounding the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) and the announced withdrawal by Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Slovenia and Luxembourg, the very first edition of the Report on compliance with investment treaty awards by States has been published by the present author. Whereas the discussion usually focuses on whether international investment agreements (IIAs)…
The International Bar Association (“IBA”) Subcommittee on Investment Treaty Arbitration has recently finalized its report titled “Arbitrating Small Value Claims in Investment Arbitration” co-signed by the current co-chairs (Caline Mouawad, Maxi Scherer) and former co-chairs (Noiana Marigo, Patrick Pearsall) (“Report”). The Report was also presented at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the IBA that recently…
A North American energy trade war may be on the horizon. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) is backstepping the opening of Mexican energy markets by halting the issuance of permits, providing competitive advantages to state-owned enterprises, and attacking independent regulators. The re-centralization of the energy sector is being done in the name of Mexico’s…
Subscribers to KluwerArbitration enjoy access to the ICCA Yearbook Commercial Arbitration. A new upload of materials from the 2022 volume of the Yearbook Commercial Arbitration is now available on the KluwerArbitration database. It contains six unpublished awards rendered under the auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce. The arbitrators dealt with a broad range of…
Over the last few years, arbitrator independence and impartiality have been under heightened scrutiny by courts and tribunals. This is not unexpected. The importance of the rule against bias is best explained by Lord Denning’s dictum in Metropolitan Properties Co (FGC) Ltd v Lannon [1969] 1 QB 577 where he held that “[j]ustice must be…
On the third and final day of CanArb Week 2022, the ICC Canada Arbitration Committee held its annual conference titled The New World. The conference sessions were bookended by opening and closing remarks by Professor Janet Walker (Chair, ICC Canada, Atkin Chambers, Full Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School) and Myriam Seers (Vice-Chair, ICC Canada, Partner,…
The third edition of CanArb Week took place in Montréal from October 19 to 21, 2022. Speakers from all walks of arbitration life (academics, arbitrators, counsel, experts, leaders of arbitral institutions, and third party funders), as well as justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, gathered in the “Paris of North America”, to the delight of…
Subscribers to KluwerArbitration enjoy access to the ICCA Yearbook Commercial Arbitration. A new upload of materials from the 2022 volume of the Yearbook Commercial Arbitration is now available in the KluwerArbitration database. The materials include ten unpublished awards rendered under the auspices of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce between March 2019…
The Arbitration Act 1996 (the “Act“), the principal legislation governing arbitration in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, came into force 25 years ago. This landmark Act has enabled London to become a top arbitral seat and England and Wales is now home to at least 5,000 arbitrations every year. On 22 September 2022, to mark…
The current era of emergencies, which includes climate change, environmental challenges, armed conflicts, and health crises, has a profound impact on foreign direct investment (FDI). A panel held on 27 September 2022 as part of the second edition of the World Arbitration Update (WAU) engaged with the effect of such global emergencies on international investment…
The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (“BIICL”), and DLA Piper, recently organized an event titled Revised ICSID Arbitration Rules: Key Changes. Following the initial presentation of Martina Polasek (ICSID Secretariat), Prof. Yarik Kryvoi (BIICL), Kate Cervantes-Knox, (DLA Piper), Guglielmo Verdirame KC (Twenty Essex) and Dr. Anthony Sinclair (Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan) shared…
The second edition of the World Arbitration Update was held from 26 to 30 September 2022. The panels dedicated to the African region were held on September 28, and one of the panels focused on ‘Legal Developments in Sub-Saharan Africa’. The panel discussions provided an overview of and updates on the practice of arbitration in…
The Second Edition of the World Arbitration Update (WAU) took place from September 26 to September 30, 2022. This post highlights the panel on “Taking Stock of the ECT Modernization Process: Fit for the 21st Century?”. The panel was moderated by WAW Co-founder José Antonio Rivas (Xtrategy LLP/Georgetown Law). He was joined by Daniela-Olivia Ghicajanu (Georgetown…
The Centre for International Law and Governance, University of Copenhagen, in cooperation with Hasselt University and Seven Summits Arbitration, recently hosted an expert roundtable on “The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) at a Crossroads”. The discussion, moderated by the three authors of this post, focused on the relationship between investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), investment protection, modernization…
On September 19, 2022, the Guatemalan Congress enacted the Act for Promotion of Investment of Foreign Capital, 46-2022 (Ley de Fomento de Inversión de Capital Extranjero) (the “Act”), which came into force on September 27, 2022. The Act aims to promote investment projects from foreign capital in Guatemala. The Act gives special treatment to foreign…
An arbitrator’s authority to rely on a law that was not pleaded by the parties has been the subject of extensive discussions in the literature. Anecdotal evidence suggests that civil law jurisdictions broadly tend to adopt a more liberal approach to recognizing such authority in international arbitration, while common law jurisdictions, on the other hand,…
The epic finale of the Kabab-Ji saga has arrived. On 28 September 2022, the French Court of Cassation has delivered its long-awaited decision in Kabab-Ji SAL (Lebanon) v Kout Food Group (Kuwait) (Court of Cassation, Appeal No. 20-20.260) less than a year following the United Kingdom Supreme Court’s (UK SC) final say in the case’s…
On the second day of the 11th Asia-Pacific ADR Virtual Conference, the KCAB, the South Korean Ministry of Justice, the ICC Court of Arbitration and UNCITRAL hosted a panel on the state of the energy markets in 2022. The panel was moderated by Dr. Wolfgang Peter (Senior Partner, Peter & Kim) and the panelists included…
The Seoul ADR Festival (“SAF”) 2022, conducted by the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board, was held between 7-11 November 2022. The 11th Asia-Pacific ADR Virtual Conference, the flagship conference of SAF 2022, took place on 9-10 November 2022 and was attended by more than 400 participants. It covered a broad range of topics over four sessions….
On 29-30 September 2022, the second annual Balkan Arbitration Conference (“BAC 22”) – was held in Tirana, Albania. The Conference is the first arbitration conference for the Balkan region as a whole. Its purpose is to provide a forum to help build cooperation and develop the use and practice of arbitration in the Balkan region….
The COVID-19 pandemic made us realize that a lot of business can be conducted remotely, and that drafting contracts does not have to involve physical signatures on the same documents by all the parties involved. This progress, of course, has not bypassed arbitration. In this post, we will look at how to effectively conclude an…
The annual “Great Debate” took place on the fourth day of Australian Arbitration Week. This event, organised with the support of hosting sponsor Corrs Chambers Westgarth, has now become a mainstay of Australian Arbitration Week, and involves a lively comedic debate between Team Arbitration and Team Litigation about which method of dispute resolution should reign…
One of the great advantages of arbitration is that it is a “one-shot” dispute resolution mechanism that does not allow for a series of appeals. Indeed, many users stress the finality of awards and the lack of an appeals mechanism as a valuable characteristic of arbitration. However, there may be situations where the “one shot”…
On the second day of Australian Arbitration Week, DLA Piper’s office in Melbourne, Australia, hosted a panel addressing “Hot Issues Involving Technology Arbitration”. The panel comprised: Gowri Kangeson (Partner in DLA Piper’s Litigation and Regulatory, and Arbitration Groups); Tim Lyons (Partner in DLA Piper’s Intellectual Property and Technology Group); and Jason Choi (Senior Associate in…
