For decades, Pakistan’s arbitration framework has faced criticism for its inconsistency and inefficiency, contributing to the country’s staggering backlog of over 2.26 million cases in the courts. This backlog includes cases affected by an ineffective arbitration regime that encourages arbitral matters to be taken to courts as a result of their extensive interventionist powers pursuant…
In recent years, the electronic signature of awards has become widely accepted under various laws and institutional rules, particularly as a result of the increased reliance on the virtual world caused by the pandemic. As discussed in a previous blog post, while some jurisdictions still require awards to be signed by wet ink signatures, many…
Can the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) be applicable to arbitration agreements? The literature has been divided on this matter, with several discernible approaches. This post explores the topic of applicability of the CISG to arbitration agreements from the perspective of the now (in)famous Enka v. Chubb case,…
On March 11, 2024, an ICSID arbitral tribunal (Juan Fernández-Armesto (President), Wendy Miles, Alexis Mourre), rendered an award in Encavis AG and Others v. Italy. The controversy follows some other 14 disputes initiated by EU investors against the Italian State under the Energy Charter Treaty (“ECT”) (some of these discussed here) and falls into the…
Although parts of CETA have been provisionally applied since 21 September 2017, the parts not subject to provisional application – including the investment chapter (CETA’s Chapter Eight) which covers investment protection and dispute resolution – are still pending domestic ratification procedures in 10 EU Member States. In parallel, CETA’s framework for investment protection and dispute…
In April 2023, the Chief Justice of Pakistan directed the formation of an Arbitration Law Review Committee (“ALRC”) to carry out a review of arbitration laws in Pakistan and propose reforms. The ALRC, which was formed under the aegis of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, was also directed to prepare legislation that would…
Several recent developments across the EU portend increased availability of third-party funding by parties to EU-seated arbitral proceedings, albeit within a context of regulation of that funding beyond the self-regulatory approach of funder codes of conduct or the rules of funder organizations. Legalisation of Third-Party Funding of International Arbitration in Ireland Ireland, the only…
On 5 March 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR” or “the Court”) delivered its judgment in Iliria S.R.L. v. Albania (“Iliria”), a case concerning a complaint under Article 6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR” or “the Convention”) relating to a more than 17-year delay in the conclusion of recognition (exequatur) proceedings…
Despite many years of hard and tireless work for the purposes of ADR promotion in Georgia, the recent attitude of the courts towards arbitration causes significant problems at the level of basic concepts and principles. To demonstrate this, it is enough to take a look at two high-profile 2023 decisions of the Tbilisi Court of…
There has been a lot of talk about artificial intelligence (“AI”) in international arbitration in recent years. I vividly remember when I gave the keynote speech on “International Arbitration 3.0 – How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Dispute Resolution” at the Vienna Arbitration Days 2018. At the time, people were quite skeptical about the topic, but…
On 25 April 2024, the European Federation for Investment Law and Arbitration (“EFILA”) held its 9th Annual Conference at Clifford Chance in Frankfurt. The conference was opened by the Chair of the Executive Board of EFILA, Mirjam van de Hel (NautaDutilh) who underscored the importance of discussing the impact of geopolitical uncertainties on international arbitration…
International arbitration specialists frequently estimate that national courts give effect to about 90% of all international arbitral awards. Recently, several scholars have set out to empirically test this estimated 90% enforcement rate (see here, here, here, and here). When they ran their numbers regarding how frequently national courts give effect to awards, however, they found…
On February 28, 2024, the arbitral tribunal in the arbitration between Red Eagle Exploration Limited (“Red Eagle”) and Colombia (ICSID Case No. ARB/18/13) issued an award under the Canada-Colombia FTA (2008)) (“FTA”). In this post, we discuss the background to this decision as well as the tribunal’s ruling regarding the merits (minimum standard of treatment…
Following our previous post on dispute resolution in carbon markets, the ICSID Tribunal in Koch Industries, Inc. and Koch Supply & Trading, LP v. Canada, ICSID Case No. ARB/20/52 (“Koch v. Canada”) recently dismissed the Claimants’ USD 31.3 million claims arising out of a cap-and-trade emissions programme on jurisdictional grounds. The Tribunal’s key findings included…
In a judgment dated 3 April 2024, the Swiss Supreme Court (the “SSC”) rejected Spain’s challenge of an arbitral award rendered in an intra-EU arbitration under the Energy Charter Treaty (the “ECT”). This post addresses the most salient point of this decision, i.e. the SSC’s rejection of the Achmea and Komstroy judgments of the Court…
On March 11, 2024, in Swinerton Builders, Inc. v. Argonaut Insurance Company, a district court in the Ninth Circuit found a valid arbitration agreement between the contractor, Swinerton Builders, Inc. (“Swinerton”), and the non-signatory insurer, Argonaut Insurance Co. (“Argonaut”), of its subcontractor, Northern Services, Inc. (“Northern”). No. 23-CV-4158 (DMR), 2024 WL 1057473 (N.D. Cal. Mar….
Two recent judgments, one from the United States (US) District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (“Louisiana Court”) and another from the Singapore High Court (“Singapore Court”), have highlighted the difficulties that Decree No. 34/2021(Concerning the Dubai International Arbitration Centre) (“Decree No. 34/2021”) may cause to the enforceability of DIFC-LCIA arbitration clauses in arbitrations…
On 14 April 2024, the English Commercial Court granted Crescent Gas Corporation Limited (“CGC”) ownership of a London property to assist it (partially) to recover a USD 2.6 billion judgment debt owed by the National Iranian Oil Company (“NIOC”). This post explores the court’s decision and key takeaways for practitioners particularly regarding enforcement strategies. …
UNCITRAL Working Group III (“WGIII”) on Investor-State Dispute Settlement (“ISDS”) Reform convened for its 48th session in April 2024 in New York to continue its work, among others, on the establishment of an advisory centre (“AC”) on international investment dispute resolution (“IIDR”). In light of the discussions during the past three sessions from October 2023…
Mid-hearing, the Arbitral Tribunal in Sea Search-Armada, LLC v. The Republic of Colombia (PCA Case 2023-37) received an application for intervention from the Kingdom of Spain. The letter asserted Spain’s claim to certain rights over the San José Galeon, a “Spanish Navy warship sunk in naval combat against an English squadron in 1708” near the…
The Brussels first instance court attracted significant attention in 2022 by deciding to set aside an UNCITRAL award regarding a claim brought against the Republic of Poland under the US-Poland bilateral investment treaty (“US-Poland BIT”). This was the first time we had seen a Belgian court set aside an investment treaty award. The first instance…
As investors increasingly look to diversify their investments whilst seeking higher returns, and emerging nations continue the push to industrialise, to develop their infrastructure and to grow their economies, the emerging economies have become a hotbed of activity for investors, developers, and legal professionals around the world. This post considers why all eyes seem to…
On 6 February 2024, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CiArb) European Branch/French Chapter held a seminar at the Paris office of Bird & Bird moderated by Jalal El Ahdab (Bird&Bird) and Alexandre Malan (Belot Malan & Associés) on a crucial topic: Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) issues and their impact on international arbitration. The panel discussion…
On 21 February 2024, the District Court of Amsterdam (“the court”) rendered a decision in summary proceedings. The key question that arose from this decision was: Can parties facing an unclear arbitration agreement ask the national courts to resolve their disputes instead? The issue of ambiguity surrounding arbitration agreements is not a novel phenomenon (see,…
