Advocacy, Arbitration Proceedings, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Procedure, State, State Agency, State defense, Witness

, , (Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP)/ /Leave a comment

In the last three decades, the advent of investment treaty arbitration and more recently third-party funding have led to an exponential rise in the number of international arbitrations pursued by private parties against sovereign States. Against this background, on March 28, 2022, as part of Paris Arbitration Week, Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle hosted the…

Fair and Equitable Treatment, International Investment Arbitration, International Investment Law, International Law, Investment Arbitration, Investment Disputes, Investment law, Investment protection, Minimum Standard of Treatment

, (Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP) and (Hughes Hubbard LLP)/ /Leave a comment

FET is often described as the core standard of international investment law.  Recently, there has been renewed discussion on its intended meaning, by reference to a range of source materials that arguably reflect States’ intentions at the time of concluding investment treaties.  On December 10, 2021, the Dispute Resolution Interest Group of the American Society…

Fiji, New York Convention, New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, Pacific Islands, Palau, Recognition and enforcement of arbitral award, Tonga

(12 Wentworth Selborne Chambers)/ /1 Comment

Historical records indicate that Tuesday, 10 June 1958 must have been a busy day in the corridors of the United Nations.1)Gary Born and the author are Expert International Commercial Arbitration Consultants retained by the Asian Development Bank to advise states on accession to the Convention, legislative reform and capacity building. On that day, following the…

ICSID, ICSID Convention, Investment Arbitration, Recognition and enforcement of arbitral award, Turkey, Turkish Court of Cassation

, (Baysal & Demir Law Firm)/ /Leave a comment

It is trite to suggest that the awards rendered under the aegis of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”) are insulated from national court review. In the context of recognition and enforcement, national courts are not permitted to examine ICSID arbitral awards. In 2006, 50 years after the ICSID Convention came into force, commentators…

arbitration rules, Arbitration Tech Toolbox, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Digital Dispute Resolution Rules, LegalTech, Technology

(Charles Russell Speechlys LLP)/ /Leave a comment

At the YSIAC Conference 2021 ARBXTalk symposium at the end of 2021, it was noted that “[a] consensus shared amongst the panellists was that arbitral disputes surrounding [cryptocurrencies, blockchains and non-fungible tokens; collectively, ‘digital assets’] do not differ greatly from disputes in other industries beyond the change in underlying subject-matter of the disputes.” Yet even…

Yearbook Commercial Arbitration

(General Editor, ICCA Publications; Amsterdam Center for International Law, University of Amsterdam)/ /Leave a comment

Subscribers to KluwerArbitration.com enjoy access to the ICCA Yearbook Commercial Arbitration. The first upload of materials for the 2022 volume of ICCA’s Yearbook Commercial Arbitration is now available in the KluwerArbitration database. It consists of 25 court decisions from 17 countries and includes, among others, an update of jurisprudence from El Salvador on the 1958 New York Convention,…

Arbitrability, Canada, Costs, Discovery, Jurisdiction, USA

(Dentons) and (Dentons US LLP)/ /Leave a comment

A dual webinar series “Do You Know What Your Neighbour is Doing?” (available at links here and here) recently hosted by Dentons provided an overview of how to navigate international arbitration in the United States (“US”) and Canada. The first webinar was moderated by Rachel Howie, FCIArb (Calgary). It featured three panelists who discussed international…

Applicable Law, Blockchain, Metaverse, NFT, Paris Arbitration Week

, , (Allen & Overy), (Hanotiau & van den Berg), (Lalive), and (Fortress Investment Group)/ /Leave a comment

As part of the 2022 Paris Arbitration Week, several sessions were held in (relation to) the metaverse. This post provides an overview of the discussions held by the third panel during the 6th ICC European Conference (“Debate on Metaverse: Will Arbitration be the Arena of Web 3.0 Conflict? A Dispute Resolution Minefield Coming from the…

ADR Clauses, Africa, Belt Road Initiative, China, Dispute boards, Mediation

(Swiss Chamber of Commercial Mediation)/ /Leave a comment

Ever since the Chinese government officially adopted it in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has evolved restlessly. Yet, ten years later, its exact delineations are still somewhat blurry: the global infrastructure project encapsulates all at once a vision, a strategy and a policy. One certainty, however, remains constant. The BRI is and will…

ISDS Reform, Morocco

(Sciences Po) and (King's College London)/ /Leave a comment

The 2019 Moroccan Model BIT (the ‘2019 Model BIT’) is a good example of the growing body of ‘new generation’ Model BITs fuelling the ISDS reform conversation. Broadly speaking, the drafters of these agreements (including the 2019 Dutch Model BIT, 2017 Colombian Model BIT, and 2016 Pan-African Investment Code) have attempted to rethink means of…

Arbitral Tribunal, Arbitrator Intelligence, Arbitrators

(Bocconi University) and (Association ARBITRI)/ /Leave a comment

In the absence of concrete publicly available information about arbitrators, arbitration practitioners often resort to cognitive shortcuts and just plain guesswork in the arbitrator selection process. As explored in a previous post, parties and counsel frequently rely on arbitrators’ common-law or civil-law education and practice as indicators for how they might approach key case management…

Annulment, France

, , (Reed Smith)/ /Leave a comment

On 9 February 2022, the French Supreme Court (‘Cour de cassation’) held that a respondent party in arbitration cannot sabotage proceedings by refusing to pay its share of the advance on costs, then subsequently challenge the jurisdiction of national courts in favour of arbitration. Such behaviour, according to the French Supreme Court, constitutes a breach…

COVID-19, Investment Arbitration, Latin America, Pensions, Technology

(Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP) and (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer)/ /Leave a comment

For the last 20 years Latin America has been a fertile ground for ISDS. From the cases against Argentina in the early 2000s, to those against Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico and Bolivia in subsequent years, and more recently Peru and Colombia, investment treaty disputes in the region have continued to arise. While the seeds of the…

Arbitrators, Diversity, Institutional Arbitration, Interviews with Our Editors, SIAC, Singapore, Singapore International Arbitration Centre

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Ms Lucy Reed is a full-time arbitrator and a Visiting Professor at National University of Singapore.  Previously, she was the Co-Head of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Global International Arbitration Group.  Her prior experience includes acting as the US Agent to the Iran-US Claims Tribunal and as General Counsel of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (“KEDO”). …

AMLO, China, Hong Kong, ISDS, Mexico

, (King & Spalding)/ /Leave a comment

As he embarks on the second half of his term, Mexico’s President, Andres Manuel López Obrador (known as “AMLO”), continues to fight foreign investors in a myriad of sectors.  By now it is clear that his presidency will be marked by his stance against the private sector and previous administrations which, in his view, “pillaged…

Energy, Paris Arbitration Week, Renewable energy

, (Three Crowns)/ /Leave a comment

As part of the 2022 Paris Arbitration Week, Three Crowns held on 31 March 2022 a conference on “Renewable Energy and Arbitration”. The panel was comprised of Marc Péresse (Head of Legal Offshore Wind at EDF Renewables), Fabien Roques (Executive Vice President with Compass Lexecon and Associate Professor in Economics at Paris Dauphine and at…

Paris Arbitration Week, Sport arbitration

, and (Geneva Graduate Institute)/ /Leave a comment

Paris Arbitration Week 2022 demonstrated the arbitration community’s increasing interest in sports-related disputes, with three events dealing with sports arbitration. This post is a non-exhaustive account of those events. Panelists covered different topics, ranging from the venues of sports arbitration to diversity in arbitration panels, sports and competition law, the impact of Covid-19 and economic…

Croatia, Energy Charter Treaty, Fair and Equitable Treatment, Israel, NAFTA, Paris Arbitration Week

(Addleshaw Goddard LLP)/ /Leave a comment

As part of the 2022 Paris Arbitration Week, Jeantet organised a round table on “The Fair and Equitable Treatment Standard: Update and Perspective”. The panel was composed of Yuriy Pochtovyk (Legal Official, Energy Charter Secretariat), Prof. Kaj Hobér (Associate Member, 3 Verulam Buildings), Barton Legum (Partner, Honlet Legum Arbitration), Irena Alajbeg (Croatian Ministry of Foreign and…

Enforcement, Paris Arbitration Week, Russia, SCC Rules, VIAC

(Addleshaw Goddard LLP)/ /1 Comment

As part of the 2022 Paris Arbitration Week, Jeantet organised a conference on “The impact of Russian sanctions on international commercial arbitration: from arbitrability to enforcement”. The panel was composed of Crina Baltag (Associate Professor, Stockholm University; and Editor of the Kluwer Arbitration Blog), David Lasfargue (Partner, Jeantet), Niamh Leinwather (Secretary General, VIAC), Evgenyia Rubinina…

Arbitration Agreement, CISG, General Terms and Conditions, New York Convention

(Seven Summits Arbitration)/ /Leave a comment

On 26 November 2020, the German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof—BGH) intervened in the “disputed” question of the applicability of the CISG to arbitration agreements (I ZR 245/19, para. 28). The Decision—based on the specific factual circumstances of the case and the most-favorable-law provision (Article VII) of the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement…

Advocacy, COVID-19

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One of the leading scholars in international dispute resolution today is Sundaresh Menon, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Singapore. In March of 2021, he delivered the opening address at the Singapore International Commercial Court Symposium. As part of his welcome delivered virtually, he made some interesting observations: History informs us that while…

Arbitral Award, Arbitration clause, Canada, Colombia, ICSID, ICSID Arbitration, International environmental disputes, Treaty Interpretation

(LALIVE) and (Homburger)/ /Leave a comment

Environmental concerns now play an increasing role in investment disputes. In this regard, this post analyses the interpretation of an environmental carve-out in an investment treaty in the decision on jurisdiction and liability in Eco Oro Minerals Corp. (“Eco Oro”) v. Colombia.   Background and Award This dispute arose from Colombia’s measures adopted in connection…

Cross-examination, Experts, Moot Courts, Witness

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Long before modern litigation or arbitration, Socrates famously cross-examined one of his accusers and, through systematic lines of questioning, undermined their claims. Though it did not save him Socrates looms large in the imagination of modern lawyers as one of the best cross-examiners of all time. Cross-examination is a complex, yet exciting discipline that requires,…

Force majeure, International Public Policy, Russia, Sanctions

(Queen Mary University)/ /1 Comment

When and how arbitral tribunals should give effect to international sanctions is a long-standing question in international arbitration. Unilateral economic sanctions have been traditionally characterised as factual impediments that could trigger force majeure or frustration of purpose defences. However, a growing number of scholars and practitioners have criticised this factual approach and have advocated for…