This post highlights the most significant arbitration-related developments in Switzerland in 2022 that are of interest to the international arbitration community at large. Part I focuses on the topic of arbitrator’s independence and impartiality as well as on enforcement of arbitral awards in Switzerland, all from the perspective of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (‘SFSC’)….
This Part II of the 2022 Year in Review: Switzerland post focuses on decisions of the SFSC providing useful guidance on the remedy of revision (as in force since January 2021) and on the concept of “treaty shopping”. In addition, Part II briefly summarizes the main developments in Swiss legislation and arbitration rules (Supplemental Swiss…
This post provides a review of the most noteworthy arbitration-related developments in France in 2022. In a nutshell, last year, French courts consolidated previous approaches and solutions endorsed in 2020 and 2021, and confirmed major developments of French arbitration law. The Fear of a Substantive Review of Awards by the Annulment Judge Are French…
Now more than ever, technology is an integral part of hearings. Cross-examination of witnesses by videolink and streaming to remote participants are now commonly accepted; real-time transcription has become the norm wherever budget allows; and electronic presentation of evidence (EPE) is frequently used in cross-examinations. These technologies have changed the way in which we present…
The year 2022 saw French and Dutch courts upholding arbitration awards which condemned Russia for breaches of the 1998 BIT between Russia and Ukraine (“Russia-Ukraine BIT”) through actions in the Crimea peninsula after its annexation in 2014. The arbitration cases in the context of which the awards were issued (the “Crimea cases”) have a common…
In 2022, Canadian courts revisited some old issues, like the timeframe for recognizing foreign arbitral awards, but also faced new dilemmas, such as the impact of sanctions on recognition and enforcement. Fostering Canada’s pro-arbitration standing, courts were generally adamant about referring commercial parties to arbitration, although a few exceptions that arose in insolvency contexts are…
The past year has seen several victories for Canada on the ISDS front, a conclusion of a decade-long NAFTA arbitration, and much more. If 2022 is any indication, readers will have many more developments to look forward to during 2023. Canada comes out of 2022 mostly on top in ISDS Of the cases surveyed,…
A recent international arbitration case administered by the Permanent Arbitration Court attached to the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (“HCCI Arbitration Court”) demonstrated that Hungary follows the international trend in dealing with the enforceability of pathological arbitration clauses. Arbitration clauses are pathological if they contain defective elements, thus making their interpretation at best uncertain,…
The European Commission has published the Trade and Investment pillar of the Advanced Framework Agreement between the European Union (EU) and Chile (the Agreement), as politically concluded. This seeks to modernise the EU-Chile Association Agreement. Undoubtedly, it represents a success for the EU, as it reinvigorates its trade and investment agenda, particularly in light of…
On November 10, 2022, the Supreme Court of Canada issued its decision in Peace River v Petrowest. Insolvency and arbitration practitioners alike eagerly anticipated the decision, hoping it would provide clarity on how to resolve challenges that arise when these two specialist areas of practice come together in one case. In this post, we review…
This is the fourth consecutive year that we, either together or separately, have reported on trends at the intersection of human rights and international investment arbitration from the prior year (see prior Blog coverage, here, here, and here). As we emphasized last year, developments at this intersection continue directional trends from prior years, but also converge across both…
The School of Law at SOAS University of London is unique among Law Schools in London. We have a distinct ‘Southern’ perspective in our course content, and we take a socio-legal dimension in our engagement with the law and how we teach law to our students. We bring these to our teaching on the international…
By a 4-3 majority, the Irish Supreme Court held in Costello v Government of Ireland that the Constitution precludes Irish ratification of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union and its member states. Inevitably, the decision has been compared with Achmea and CJEU Opinion 1/17. This post looks at…
2022 was strongly marked by the change and reform of institutions, treaties, and procedural rules relevant to investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS). This post summarizes the most important institutional and structural reforms that were progressed during 2022 in relation to investment treaty law and ISDS. The focus is on the various reforms pursued under in the…
According to Aviation: Benefits Beyond Borders, statistics from 2018-2020 demonstrate that the general aviation industry supports 87.7 million jobs worldwide and contributes around US$ 3.5 trillion a year to the global GDP (equivalent to 4.1% of global GDP). In parallel, the general aviation industry is increasingly turning to international arbitration. One clear manifestation of this…
2022 was arguably the year when climate change entered the mainstream of policymaking in the investment treaty regime, with a particular focus on aligning the regime with international climate commitments, most notably the Paris Agreement. Nevertheless, debates over the interaction between the investment treaty regime and climate mitigation efforts have been active for around 15…
In July 2022, the African Arbitration Academy launched the Model Bilateral Investment Treaty for African States (‘Model BIT’) with the goal of it serving as a source of cohesion for African States’ Investor-State Dispute Settlement (‘ISDS’) reform strategy. They also expect the Model BIT will promote the codification of Investment Policies and Laws for African…
The last decade was not easy for investment arbitration in general, but it faced particular difficulties within the European Union (‘EU’). In recent years, the European Commission has pursued (with success) eradication of this form of international dispute settlement mechanism between foreign investors from one EU Member State and an EU Member State (host state),…
Geography, culture, politics, economic conditions, and population demographics, in my view, account for very different narratives and reactions to the teaching of international investment arbitration. In the last 13 years, I have had the distinct experience of in-person and/or virtual teaching of a course and/or guest lecturing international investment arbitration in a wide range of…
The International Academy of Comparative Law (IACL) held its XXI General Congress in October 2022. The topic of one of the sessions was Impartiality and Independence of International Adjudicators. The purpose of the work was to assess criteria, mechanisms and remedies applied in the various legal systems (including international courts and arbitration) to ensure the…
2022 was a busy year for the United States Supreme Court’s arbitration docket. The Court spent significant time defining the role of federal courts in arbitration-related litigation: it curbed Section 1782 discovery in support of international arbitration, limited the preferential treatment given to arbitration over litigation, protected the right to individualized arbitration, and limited the…
2022 was a year of change and action with important developments in investment arbitration in Latin America. The region continues to top the ICSID investment arbitration caseload, accounting for 28% of the total of registered cases by June 2022. In 2022, states and arbitral institutions sought to modernize investment protections and their institutional frameworks. In…
It was St Martin’s Eve on 10 November 2022, a day also known in Sweden as “Martin’s goose” (Sw. Mårtensgås). As the Swedish name suggests, the St Martin’s Eve custom involves a three-course goose dinner in which all parts of the goose are used and finished with apple cake. It is particularly popular in Scania…
This year marks a full century since the ICC Court was established in 1923. Yesterday, I was joined by ICC Secretary General John W. H. Denton AO, ICC Court Secretary General Alexander G. Fessas, and ICC Managing Counsel Ziva Filipic, in a global, on-line launch of our centenary celebration. The ICC Court was created with…
