Remote hearings are nothing new, but the COVID-19 crisis has forced international arbitration out of its comfort zone. Parties, counsel, and arbitrators must adapt to the new reality of conducting proceedings in the face of travel restrictions and social distancing measures. One particularly thorny question is whether and to what extent planned physical hearings that…
In A and B v C, D and E [2020] EWCA Civ 409, the English Court of Appeal issued on 19 March 2020 an order compelling a non-party to arbitration proceedings seated in New York to give evidence in support of the arbitration. The Arbitration The dispute arose under two settlement agreements between A…
In the recent decision of AnAn Group (Singapore) Pte Ltd v VTB Bank (Public Joint Stock Company) [2020] SGCA 33 (“AnAn“), the Singapore Court of Appeal found that when a debtor challenges a winding-up application on the basis of a disputed debt or cross-claim that is subject to an arbitration agreement, the court should apply…
In January 2020, following the Executive Order of President Trump, the United States imposed additional sanctions targeting predominately Iran’s metals sector including copper, iron and steel manufactures (the “Order”). These sanctions were designed to expand secondary sanctions to cover new industry sectors such as mining, textiles and construction. The secondary sanctions aim to deter and…
The Paris Court of Appeal considers that the arbitral awards annulled at the place of the arbitration do not amount to a valid cause for refusal of enforcement in France. Recently, the Court specified that whether the interests at stake are international or national does not change this position. Background of the Dispute On…
During a vivid “virtual” presentation delivered by the well-known arbitrator, professor and practitioner, Gary Born, the topic of virtual hearings was addressed. Another well-known international arbitrator, Elena Gutierrez García and the President of the AMCHAM-Peru Arbitration Center, José Daniel Amado, moderated the discussion. At the outset, Mr. Born clarified that virtual hearings are not a…
Whenever litigating against states or sovereign entities – or international organisations for that matter – outside of their home jurisdiction there is a roadblock to consider: immunities. On closer inspection, immunities turn out as two roadblocks: immunity from jurisdiction and immunity from enforcement. Whereas the general assumption is that an agreement to arbitrate waives immunity…
On 5 May 2020, which tellingly was the day before the last day in office of the President of the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) Voßkuhle, the Bundesverfassungsgericht rendered its judgment on the constitutionality of the participation of the German Central Bank (Bundesbank) and the German Government in the European Central Bank (ECB)’s programme…
The Costa Rican court in charge of deciding upon arbitral matters recently set aside an award on the ground of the arbitrator’s failure to disclose a circumstance that could be found in the case file. In a five-page judgment dated June 27, 2019,1)Judgment from 27 June 2019, PH Chucás S.A. v. Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad,…
In less than a decade, the Republic of Côte-d’Ivoire enacted two investment laws (2012 and 2018). The latter one recently amended, reflects the best practices the country has learned from its previous investor-states disputes. On December 18, 2019 the Council of Ministers introduced some amendments to the 2018 Investment Code related inter alia to VAT…
There are certain moments in the lifetime of an academic journal that prove to be critical for its future. For this Journal, which has been successfully published for more than 100 years now, moving to the publishing house of Wolters Kluwer will undoubtably prove to be a moment of great significance. There are three main…
As in most jurisdictions, Germany based arbitral tribunals and German state courts assessing challenges to arbitral awards are often confronted with questions regarding the conflict between the parties’ right to be heard and the denial of the parties’ requests for evidence. In recent years, the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof – BGH)1)E.g. BGH case…
Last week BCLP released the results of its annual International Arbitration survey on the topic of appeals against a tribunal’s decision on the merits. Respondents to the survey comprised arbitrators, corporate counsel, external lawyers, litigation funders, academics and those working at arbitral institutions. Procedures for court challenge of an award on the basis of procedural…
On 22 March 2019, the Dutch Government released the text of the new model Netherlands BIT. Its idealism has been applauded: the new model prioritizes gender and regional diversity as well as the United Nations sustainability goals. Yet, what would the effect be of some of the model’s provisions on Foreign Direct Investment (‘FDI’)? For…
In 2015, Ecuador changed its General Organic Code of Processes (procedural law or COGEP) and imposed an exequatur procedure for foreign awards. The Law of Productive Development, Attraction of Investment, Employment Generation and Tax Stability (Investment Law) enacted in 2018 repealed this requirement. Nevertheless, despite this amendment, there are still practical difficulties that parties face…
In a recent decision, Bina Modi and Ors. v. Lalit Modi and Ors., CS(OS) 84 and 85/2020, a single judge of the Delhi High Court has cast doubt on the jurisdiction of Indian courts to grant injunctions restraining arbitral proceedings (popularly called anti-arbitration injunctions). While the grant of anti-arbitration injunctions by Indian courts has been…
The ruling given on 25 February 2020 (‘Ruling’) by the High Court of Lagos State in Nigeria (‘Lagos High Court’), setting aside an award in the case of Global Gas and Refinery Limited (‘Global Gas’) and Shell Petroleum Development Company (‘Shell’) on the ground of arbitrator non-disclosure, raises concern to the arbitral community both in…
Two recent online seminars, organised in the context of the Online Seminar Series of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC), focused on the fast-track digitalisation into which the world of international arbitration is forced as a result of the pandemic. The first, held on 29 April, addressed the current topic of Online Hearings When the…
Recently, the first-ever treaty-based arbitration against Norway was registered with ICSID. The Request for Arbitration was submitted by a Latvian investor, Mr. Peteris Pildegovics, and his company, SIA North Star. This post provides a background to the dispute, outlines possible claims, elaborates on its ramifications, and predicts further arbitrations. The dispute at hand is similar…
In a recent decision of November 2019 the Austrian Supreme Court (“OGH” in German) considered whether an arbitral award rendered by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Belarus shall be declared enforceable and emphasized the importance of deliberations in the context of the ordre public standard to reach an enforceable award. In a nutshell,…
Since 2017, the appointment of members of the Appellate Body (‘AB’) of the Dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organisation (‘WTO’) has been blocked by the United States (‘US’). This has disrupted the functioning of the WTO dispute settlement system. The US claims that it has blocked the appointment for serious reasons: the AB…
The long-awaited Agreement to terminate intra-EU BITs (bilateral investment treaties) was signed on 5 May 2020 (the “Termination Agreement”). According to the European Commission, the Termination Agreement “implements the March 2018 European Court of Justice judgment (Achmea case), where the Court found that investor-State arbitration clauses in [intra-EU BITs] are incompatible with EU Treaties.” The…
This blog has previously discussed the issue of jurisdiction of Indian courts over foreign-seated arbitrations and the issue of Indian parties choosing a foreign seat of arbitration. However, a more fundamental issue concerns the interpretation of arbitration agreements to determine the choice of seat. Since September 2018, the Supreme Court of India (“Supreme Court”) has…
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (“BRI”) is well known as the largest infrastructure construction program in world history.1)This post is expressed as Michael J. Bond’s personal opinion and does not represent the views of any organization or party. President Xi Jinping announced its two components in 2013; one is a land-based Silk Road Economic Belt…
