On the first day of the 2022 London International Disputes Week, Herbert Smith Freehills, HFW, HKA, King & Spalding, and Twenty Essex organised a panel on “Latin America: delivering sustainable and ethical infrastructure across key sectors – a disputes perspective”. The panel was composed of Richard Caldwell (Brattle), Dr Francisco González De Cossío (Gonzales de…
As part of the 2022 London International Disputes Week, McCarthy Tetrault, Queen Mary University London, Clyde & Co, Hughes Hubbard, and Fountain Court Chambers organized a conference on “What is the role of London for North American disputes? A North American perspective on London as an international dispute hub.” The panel was composed of Remy…
The first day of the LIDW main conference began with a short introduction by Richard Bamforth, Chair of the LIDW Strategy Group, and partner at CMS. Bamforth reiterated the theme of LIDW 2022 reminding those in attendance that there is a question mark at the end of theme: “Dispute Resolution-Global, Sustainable, Ethical?” This means, as…
London International Disputes Week 2022 (LIDW) 2022 kicked off yesterday with outstanding sessions and panellists in a hybrid format all around the city, centred around this year’s theme: Dispute Resolution: Global, Sustainable, Ethical?. Each year, the LIDW concentrates on several hot topics and controversial issues in international dispute resolution from all over the world. Yesterday’s…
Since the first edition in 2019, Kluwer Arbitration Blog has partnered with London International Disputes Week (LIDW) for the live coverage of an exceptional week addressing topical issues related to the resolution of commercial disputes. The first panel on 9 May 2022, on London as a dispute resolution hub for disputes involving parties from Ukraine…
As part of the 2022 London International Disputes Week, Arbitration Chambers, Clyde & Co, Hausfeld, Jones Day and LexisNexis organized a conference on “London as an international disputes hub for Dubai, UAE and region disputes: arbitration and the courts – is it still safe to arbitrate in Dubai, and other hot topics”. The panel was…
The Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, also known as the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC),1)CEMAC is the French acronym for “Communauté Economique et Monétaire de l’Afrique Centrale” has recently enacted a Supplementary Act N° 01/21-CEMAC-CJ-CCE-15 establishing the Statute of the Arbitration Center of the Community Court of Justice (Supplementary Act No…
It is not uncommon in arbitration proceedings for interim measures to be necessary to avoid the relief intended on the merits from being frustrated. Interim measures in support of arbitration can now fortunately be ordered not only by national courts but also by arbitrators in most jurisdictions. In most instances, interim measures granted by arbitral…
Aircraft seizures tend to come up at the enforcement stage, oftentimes in relation to investment arbitration awards (see, e.g., proceedings against Tanzania or Equatorial Guinea). In Specter Aviation v. Laprade, however, the seizure of the Beechcraft Super King Air 300 (the “Aircraft”) is what triggered proceedings before the courts of the Canadian province of Québec,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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”). …
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…
