This post considers Practice Direction 57AC (“PD57AC”), which changes the approach to witness evidence in the English Courts, and its potential impact on London-seated arbitration. The New Approach to Witness Statements in English Litigation On 6 April 2021, the English Business and Property Courts marked a significant change in the approach that lawyers, and…
On 12 March 2021, Fangda Partners, ASAFO & CO and Delos Dispute Resolution hosted an interactive roundtable on “The Often-Overlooked Value of African Seats for African-Chinese Disputes”. The panelists for the roundtable discussion were Tunde Fagbohunlu SAN , Julia (Zhang) Le Roux, Michael Tam, Olga Boltenko and Peter Po Kwong Yuen, and it was moderated…
In the context of the development of KluwerArbitration, the world’s leading resource for international arbitration research, Wolters Kluwer is searching for several freelance subject matter experts (SMEs) to start work in July 2021. The appointments will be for approximately six months, on a full-time basis (forty hours per week). Wolters Kluwer is developing a range…
Recent draft legislation submitted to the Ukrainian Parliament would introduce new regulations imposing stricter requirements for setting up domestic arbitral institutions (‘treteyskyi sud’) and, at the same time, introduce a framework for establishing new international arbitral institutions in Ukraine. This appears to be the latest legislative initiative in the line of recent reforms aimed at…
The 18th Annual ITA-ASIL Conference, hosted virtually for a half-day on March 23, 2021, discussed ongoing efforts at ICSID and UNCITRAL Working Group III to reform investment arbitration. José Alvarez (New York University School of Law) kicked off the conference by throwing down the gauntlet: procedural reform does not go far enough. In the long…
It is well-known that confidentiality is a particularly important mechanism for protecting the information and data contained in a process in which disclosure could cause prejudice to the parties. That is because the mere existence of a lawsuit may sometimes lead to considerable consequences for the parties, as it may affect the perception of third…
On 23 April 2021, Paul Vlas, Advocate-General of the Dutch Supreme Court issued his opinion in the Yukos case, setting the stage for the final setting aside act in The Hague after nine years of PCA-administered arbitration and six years of setting aside litigation. Advocate-General Vlas had previously advised the Dutch Supreme Court to reject…
The Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA) hosted an oral history session with The Hon. Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, interviewed by Prof. Victoria Shannon Sahani. The session, held on March 22, 2021, was part of the ITA Academic Council’s ongoing Preserving Perspectives project which aims to record the evolution of modern international arbitration in the words of…
On May 13, 2021, after several years of public consultations, Global Affairs Canada released a new Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement Model (“2021 Model”). The prior iteration of the FIPA Model was broadly understood to have been influenced by Canada’s experience under the NAFTA regime. Similarly, the 2021 Model benefits from Canada’s continued trade…
On April 19, 2021, the Secretariats of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) released the second draft of the Code of Conduct for Adjudicators in International Investment Disputes, a key feature of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) reform process which is presently under…
The Rising Arbitrator’s Challenge Webinar Series, organized by the Rising Arbitrator Initiative (RAI), took place online, on 22 April 2021. The event, with a regional focus on Africa, was the fifth leg of the series, with previous instalments covering North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Under the guidance of Victoria Kigen (Nairobi Centre for…
On Arbitrobots or Robotration There has been considerable discussion lately on the role that Artificial Intelligence (AI) may play in international arbitration (IA) in the future. While there are some interesting, indeed exciting, prospects of AI’s potential contribution to IA, there also exists a degree of hyperbole in what is predicted. Information technology has already…
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, pharmaceutical companies have engaged in a highly competitive and risky vaccine race. In less than 10 months from the declaration of the global pandemic, the vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech received its first regulatory approval, followed by the success stories of other companies. The swiftness of these results was praised as “unprecedented”…
The investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism provided by Art. 26 (2) (c) of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is highly relevant to the protection of intra-EU investments.1)In 2018, about 45 per cent of all treaty-based intra-EU investment arbitrations were brought pursuant to the ECT. See UNCTAD, Fact Sheet on Intra-European Union Investor-State Arbitration Cases, IIA…
There is at least one commonality between new technologies and arbitration in that they both aim to make processes more accessible to users. Indeed, the two should go hand-in-hand. After a brief overview of the interplay between technology and arbitration in general, this post focuses on the position in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It…
The Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment Act), 2021 (“2021 Amendment”) is the most recent intervention in, what appears to be, the Indian Parliament’s endless attempts to tinker with the scheme and intent of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“1996 Act”). The 2021 Amendment, which was passed into law on 10 March 2021 follows the Arbitration…
Since his inauguration in December 2018, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has endeavored to reverse the liberalization of the energy market achieved by his predecessor. In the last few months, actions to resume government control of Mexico’s free energy markets have intensified with the adoption and proposal of regulation affecting investor’s rights and…
On 21 April 2021, the CIArb’s London Branch hosted its annual Keynote Speech, which was held online this year. In her speech on “The Proper Law of the Arbitration Agreement”, Professor Dr. Maxi Scherer discussed the different approaches taken by jurisdictions worldwide in determining the law governing the arbitration agreement. She further compared those approaches…
The Investor-State Dispute Settlement regime is at the centre of a long-standing debate, subsequent reform efforts, and, more in general, great innovation. In this context, on 14 May 2021, a LIDW member-hosted event – organised and co-hosted by Clifford Chance, EFILA, Herbert Smith Freehills, Queen Mary University’s School of International Arbitration, and White & Case…
In a landmark ruling in PASL Wind Solutions Private Limited v. GE Power Conversion,1)Special Leave Petition (Civil) 3936 of 2021 (arising out of GHC judgment dated November 11, 2020), Supreme Court of India Judgment dated April 20, 2021. India’s Supreme Court rejected the argument that the designation of a foreign seat between two Indian parties…
The results of the 2021 QMUL-White & Case International Arbitration Survey were launched on 6 May 2021. The survey explores the theme of “Adapting Arbitration to a Changing World”: how international arbitration has adapted to changing demands and circumstances including the COVID-19 pandemic, and opportunities for the international arbitration community to adapt more and better….
Subscribers to KluwerArbitration enjoy access to the ICCA Yearbook Commercial Arbitration. A new upload of materials for the 2021 volume of the Yearbook is now available on the KluwerArbitration website. This upload is entirely devoted to an update of court cases from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the application of the 1958 New…
The Arbitration Committee of the New York City Bar Association has recently published a report titled: “The Functus Officio Problem in Modern Arbitration and a Proposed Solution” (the “Report”). In United States arbitration, the functus officio doctrine instructs that once an arbitrator finishes performance of her office, i.e., renders an award, her authority as an…
In a field as competitive as arbitration, international reputation is earned, not created overnight. In 2021, various judgments of the Spanish Constitutional Court (see here, here and here) have done away with some case law by inferior Madrid courts which favoured an expansive review of awards and compromised the finality of arbitration (see here and here). Spain is…
