One effective way to manage risk allocation and especially political risk in state contracts consists of delegating dispute resolution and contract interpretation to arbitrators. With the aim to entice more private investors to develop infrastructure, Brazil has taken one positive step to expressly allow arbitration in public contracts concluded in these sectors. On 20 September…
A short statute that it is, 28 USC § 1782 has given rise to prolific litigation. For years, litigants have been debating its import and courts have been dissecting its key terms: to name a few, the nature of the proceeding in aid of which discovery may be sought (see posts here, here, and here),…
“Yet for me the same nagging question continued: what are our values? Conflict seems to touch people at the deepest levels: it brings into play ‘their judgement of what is valuable or important in life.’ Yet the values of the mediator seem to be invisible.” Charlie Irvine in Mediation’s Values: Still searching. August and September…
This post analyses a series of ICSID arbitration awards against Venezuela since 2014 to understand a pressing concern in many investment arbitrations today: how to deal with the risk of expropriation in quantum calculations. Getting this right is critical to ensure that host states do not benefit from their own wrongful conduct and that investors…
With over $3 billion invested by Vedanta Resources in Zambia since it became a shareholder in Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in 2004, it is a less optimistic turn of events with Vedanta Resources and fellow shareholder, the government-owned Zambian State Mining Company ZCCM-IH (ZCCM), being at loggerheads in arbitration. In this post, we examine what…
On August 26, 2019, Brazil’s President sanctioned Statute # 13.867/2019, which inserts provisions in the Brazilian expropriation for public utility statute (Federal Decree 3.365/41). One of the most innovative provision of Brazil’s new law is the possibility of submitting disputes related to expropriations to mediation and arbitration, according to Brazil’s mediation Statute and arbitration Statute….
The ICSID Rules Amendment Project Marking the latest step in its procedural rules overhaul, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”) Secretariat released the third Working Paper on Proposals for the ICSID Arbitration Rules Amendments in late August 2019 (“WP3”). It is safe to say that the revisions of the ICSID Rules arrive…
Writing in 2015 about the need to study the intersection between insurance and dispute resolution, Professor Robert H. Jerry II concluded as follows: “The business of insurance is first and foremost the business of providing financial security against the risk of loss, but when loss occurs, the business of insurance becomes the business of resolving…
Thank you for joining us on the Kluwer Arbitration Blog, Mr Hafez Virjee. We are honoured to have the opportunity to gain insight on Delos, the independent arbitration institution that you co-founded and which provides an innovative approach to commercial dispute resolution. Delos provides a solution starting from the contract-making stage through to the issuing of…
The United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (‘New York Convention’) stipulates in Article III that enforcement of foreign arbitral awards should not be subject to more onerous conditions, higher fees or charges than those that are imposed on enforcement of domestic arbitral awards. However, the Czech Supreme Court (‘CSC’)…
As the world marched in support of global action on climate change, the German DIS40/below 40 arbitrators’ group showed its support for the cause at a conference on Arbitration and Climate Change on 10 September 2019. After a warm welcome by DIS federal coordinator Jennifer Bryant (Noerr) the conference started off with a panel discussion…
“Too many cooks spoil the broth” – this expression works in both personal and professional situations. Everyone can relate to this universal concept that where each of many people involved in a common project adds his or her own idea, it actually makes it very hard, if not impossible, to work efficiently and can even…
Italy’s leading arbitral institution, the Milan Chamber of Arbitration (“CAM”), issued its new rules (“CAM Rules”) on 1 March 2019. The new rules, superseding the previous CAM Rules of 2010 (“2010 CAM Rules”), apply to arbitration proceedings commenced after 1 March 2019, unless the parties have agreed otherwise under Article 45(2) of the CAM Rules…
Introduction On 30 May 2019, the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (“AfCFTA Agreement”) went into effect. Signed on 21 March 2018, the AfCFTA Agreement is a mega-regional trade agreement that creates a pan-African trade bloc that has the potential to unite 1.2 billion people and create a $3.4 trillion economic area. The…
In 2012, the Commercial District Court in Bijeljina (‘CDC’) finally declared that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the dispute between Elektrogospodarstvo Slovenije (‘Claimant’) on one side, and Rudnik i termelektrana Ugljevik A.D. (’Respondent’) on the other (Case reference no. 59 0 Ps 018507 12 Ps 3), with the High Commercial Court in Banja Luka (‘HCC’)…
Introduction Abdul Latif Jameel Transportation Co. Ltd. v. FedEx Corp., decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit earlier this month, is arguably the first post-Intel decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals that “permits discovery for use” in a “private commercial arbitration” under 28 U.S.C. § 1782(a). (Case No. 19-5315, at…
The full breadth and depth of Judge Charles N. Brower’s 55-year career in the law cannot be summed up in a few sentences. His private practice experience is extensive: Judge Brower spent eight years as a commercial trial and appellate attorney and as criminal defense counsel with White & Case LLP in New York. Later,…
The Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA Agreement) went into effect on May 30, 2019. The AfCFTA is the next step in a process set in motion in 1994 when the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (Abuja Treaty) entered into force. The Abuja Treaty put in place the framework for the establishment…
Introduction Since the enactment of the Argentine Civil and Commercial Code (the “CCCN”),1)The CCCN, Law No. 26.994, is in force since August 1, 2015. Argentina counts on a national statute to regulate the “arbitration agreement”. This legislative milestone has been mostly welcomed by the arbitral community, although some of its provisions have been subject to…
A 2018 decision rendered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Outokumpu Stainless USA, LLC, et al. v. GE Energy Power Conversion France SAS, Corp has recently put on the agenda of the U.S. Supreme Court the interpretation of the “in writing” requirement under Article II(2) of the New York Convention…
The topic of precedent in international arbitration is not an idle one. It is widely accepted that the existence and use of precedent in any legal system leads to predictability, consistency and equality of treatment. Indeed, one of the eight strands that according to the late Lord Bingham (as summarised by Lord Neuberger) make up…
Introduction The World Trade Organization (the “WTO”) is at an inflection point. As global dynamics shift, members must consider whether the institution, as it is currently configured, has passed its prime. The success of the WTO to date epitomizes the pinnacle of an apparent ideological consensus. However, the current recession of that consensus is forcing…
When a party seeks to challenge the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal on the basis of the substantive invalidity of the arbitration agreement, the proper law of the arbitration agreement governs the inquiry. The prevailing approach adopted to determine the proper law of the arbitration agreement is the three-stage choice-of-law analysis set out in Sulamérica…
Immunity from lawsuits afforded to international organizations, such as the United Nations, the World Bank Group and International Labour Organization, may have the beneficial effect of ensuring their freedom from the influences of the governments of their host nations, but it may also have the side effect of depriving hundreds of thousands of international civil…
