As Hong Kong Arbitration Week 2019 hits the midway point, we asked three next-generation arbitration practitioners: how do you see the future of arbitration in Hong Kong? These are their answers: Joyce Leung: As a construction lawyer, I am seeing an increase in arbitrations arising from the construction sector in light of the completion of…
Introduction Even a cursory analysis of the history of the procedural rules of leading arbitral institutions demonstrates that procedural rules are increasing in number and becoming ever more comprehensive in their scope. Institutional rules now cover, largely without exception, joinder, consolidation, emergency arbitrator provisions, and expedited procedures. And adding to this, as institutions seeking to…
Introduction Kicking off Hong Kong Arbitration Week (“HKAW”) 2019 on Sunday was a joint seminar hosted by KCAB INTERNATIONAL and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (“Freshfields”) titled: “Private Equity, Financial Services and Insurance Disputes: Don’t hesitate to arbitrate!” The seminar was an Oxford-style debate of the motion: “this house believes that private equity, financial services and insurance…
UNCITRAL’s Working Group III on investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) assembled in Vienna last week to consider a raft of reforms concerning investment arbitration. The fifth session in this process, governments surprised many by finalising quickly a medium-term work plan and commencing deliberations with a pragmatism that has proved often elusive. To be sure, not all…
Joe is the longest-serving counsel in HKIAC, having been at HKIAC since January 2014. He holds LLMs from New York University and London School of Economics and Political Science. His previous stints included private practice as well as that in SIAC. In January 2019, he was appointed as the Deputy Secretary-General of HKIAC. Our Blog…
Arbitrators and tribunal-appointed experts are at all times obliged to disclose any and all circumstances that might give rise to doubts as to their impartiality and independence. This is one of the most fundamental duties to safeguard the legitimacy of arbitration. Yet, what are the consequences if they fail to do so? This question has…
Introduction With less than a month to go before the latest EU-UK divorce date, the UK Supreme Court resumed its hearing in Micula et al. v Romania 2018/0177, relating to the enforcement of the widely discussed ICSID award against Romania. With the UK grappling with its future relationship with the EU, it is interesting timing…
In his post of 30 August 2019, Pablo Pérez-Salido discussed the proposal at UNCITRAL’s Working Group III for the establishment of an Advisory Centre on International Investment Law (ACIIL). This post seeks to make a case for such an Advisory Centre.1)This post is based on Karl P. Sauvant, “An Advisory Centre on International Investment Law:…
Introduction An ongoing discussion in the world of international arbitration concerns the conflict of interest of arbitrators and how such issue should be addressed. In this regard, the Egyptian Court of Cassation has very recently enriched this discussion by evincing its perspective on this matter, particularly, with respect to the standard of impartiality and independence…
In this edition of Brazilian Journal of Arbitration, the National Doctrine section presents Gustavo Scheffer da Silveira‘s considerations about the sentencing nature of the arbitrators’ decision on their own jurisdiction, as well as the legal regime to which the arbitral award is submitted. Also, Maria Beatriz Grella Vieira proposes some reflections on the objective arbitrability…
For all the talk about third party funding, little has been said about the buying and selling of claims outright – what I call “claims trading”. A forthcoming article is the first to survey all the known instances of claims trading in international investment arbitration. It reviews more than forty decisions in which tribunals or…
In the recent judgment of AIC Limited v The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria [2019] EWHC 2212, the English High Court adjourned the decision to enforce a Nigerian arbitral award in exercise of its discretion pursuant to section 103(5) of the Arbitration Act 1996 (which gives effect to Article VI of the New York Convention)…
We are happy to report that the latest issue of the ASA Bulletin is now available and includes the following articles and cases: ARTICLES Elliott GEISINGER, Arbitration Profiling In his message ASA President Elliott GEISINGER warns against the risks entailed in the profiling of arbitrators or counsel in international arbitration based on pre-determined general…
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…
