2019 In Review, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belt Road Initiative, China, Georgia, HK Arbitration Week, HKIAC, Hong Kong, Interim measures, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Online Dispute Resolution, South Korea, Third party funding, Trade, Uzbekistan

and (Peter & Kim)/ /Leave a comment

Gong Xi Fa Cai! The Year of the Earth Pig has drawn to a close. In what was certainly an auspicious and lucky year for arbitration developments in East and Central Asia, we take a closer look at five key developments:   1. Initiatives in PR China to boost arbitration In southern coastal China, the…

Hungary, Set aside an arbitral award, UNCITRAL Model Law

(SMARTLEGAL Schmidt & Partners)/ /Leave a comment

Two and a half decades have passed since Hungary harmonised its arbitration law with UNCITRAL Model Law (‘Model Law’) in 1994. This marked a giant leap forward, especially as the adopted provisions were made applicable not only in international, but in purely domestic arbitrations as well. This post analyses the Hungarian case law on setting…

Awards, Due process, Enforceability, Jura Novit Arbiter, Jura Novit Curia

(Baysal & Demir Law Firm) and (Gün + Partners)/ /2 Comments

How is the content of laws determined, and by whom, in international commercial arbitration? This topic mainly concerns an old legal assumption: iura novit curia, the Latin legal maxim for “the court knows the law”. While somewhat reasonable and predictable on the face of it since anyone can reasonably expect the court to know the…

ADR, Arbitration Act, Arbitration institution, Law of the Sea, National Arbitration Laws, Philippine Arbitration Convention, Philippines, Recognition and enforcement of arbitral award, Singapore Mediation Convention, South China Sea, UNCITRAL Model Law

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The year 2019 was a milestone year for alternative dispute resolution (“ADR“) in the Philippines. It saw the inaugural Philippine Arbitration Convention organized by the Philippine Institute of Arbitrators (“PIArb“) on 25 November 2019 (the “Arbitration Day“), the signing of the Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (the “Singapore Convention“), the implementation of…

Antitrust arbitration, Arbitrability, China, Competition Law, Economic, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, Non-arbitrability

(International University of Rabat)/ /Leave a comment

Private antitrust actions were long thought to be non-arbitrable due to the public law character of antitrust law, though the scope of non-arbitrability has been reduced to varying extents in different jurisdictions. For instance, US courts had long adhered to the so-called “American Safety doctrine”, which limited the arbitrability of domestic antirust disputes.1)American Safety Equipment v…

CAM, Emergency Arbitrator, Institutional Rules, Interim measures, Third party funding

(University of Naples "Federico II")/ /Leave a comment
Young ICCA

On 1 March 2019 the Milan Chamber of Arbitration issued its amended Arbitration Rules (the “2019 Rules’”) with the aim of improving “the efficiency and the rapidity of arbitral proceedings [while] ensuring the necessary guarantees.”  This objective follows the current international trend.  Indeed, in the last decade, several arbitral institutions have revised their rules in…

2019 In Review, CIAMA, CRCICA, Egypt, Morocco, National Courts, North Africa

(Egyptian State Lawsuits Authority, Ministry of Justice and University of Geneva) and (Dentons & Co, Dubai)/ /Leave a comment

Here at Kluwer Arbitration Blog, we are pleased to reflect on a number of significant and exciting developments in international arbitration, with impact on the North African region. In this post, we recap these developments and their implications; and, of course, also thank our esteemed authors who have enabled us to bring coverage of events…

Arbitration, Interim measures, Macau, Recognition and enforcement of arbitral award

, , (Morrison & Foerster LLP)/ /Leave a comment

The Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (“Macau”) has seen a dramatic decrease of foreign direct investment in the last few years. According to data from the Macau Statistics and Census Service, foreign direct investment dropped 79.9% in 2017 compared to 2016. In order to attract more investment, Macau needs to…

Dual Nationals, International Investment Arbitration, International Law, Jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, Venezuela

(GST LLP)/ /Leave a comment

In a previous post, which discussed the Ballantines award, the author concluded that doors for dual nationals’ claims are being closed, including for non-ICSID cases where the relevant treaty does not have a provision dealing with the issue. The recent Heemsen v. Venezuela jurisdictional award confirms this approach. Unanimously, a PCA tribunal declined jurisdiction over…

Law governing the arbitration agreement, Shanghai, Singapore

(Drew & Napier LLC)/ /1 Comment
YSIAC

In BNA v BNB and another [2019] SGCA 84 (“BNA”), the Singapore Court of Appeal overturned the High Court’s ruling and provided authoritative guidance on the applicable principles in determining the proper law of an arbitration agreement. I discussed the High Court’s decision and the factual background in an earlier post. This post unpacks the…

International Court of Justice, ISDS, Precedent

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Young ICCA

ISDS is a fragmented field, consisting of a few thousand bilateral investment treaties (“BITs”) and treaties with investment chapters – such as the Energy Charter Treaty (“ECT”) or the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”). These instruments that regulate foreign investment are often similar but are not the same. Yet, even where different bilateral relationships…

Brazilian Arbitration Journal

(Lee Taube Gabardo; Editor in Chief, Brazilian Arbitration Journal)/ /Leave a comment

In October 2019, Brazilian legal community lost two of its most prominent authorities in private international law: Professors Jacob Dolinger and Luiz Olavo Baptista. Besides having built the basis of modern Brazilian private international law, Professors Dolinger and Baptista were essential in the development of Brazilian arbitration. In this edition, Brazilian Journal honors these unique…

2019 In Review, Chile, Colombia, Constitutional Court, Damages, Dominican Republic, Dual Nationals, Ecuador, Free Trade Agreements, Investment Arbitration, Latin America, Mexico, USMCA

(Locke Lord LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction In 2019, we witnessed a number of interesting developments in the field of investment arbitration in Latin America. While some of them were in line with expectations, some jurisdictions did deviate from their usual or expected approach to ISDS and surprised us in positive, but also in negative ways. Our authors did a tremendous…

Africa, BIT, Emerging Market Economies, ISDS, South-South Cooperation

(University of Arkansas School of Law)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction   In a 2015 publication Investment Policies and Bilateral Investment Treaties in Africa: Implications for Regional Integration, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa opined that for countries in Africa: “[o]pportunities for signing BITs with non-African partners have largely been exhausted because new southern partners such as China and India prefer other modalities for…

Arbitration, Arbitration Quiz, Domestic arbitration, New Year Arbitration Quiz

(MDisputes)/ /Leave a comment

Nkiru Agbu is the winner of the 2020 Kluwer Arbitration Quiz. Nkiru spent New Year’s Day researching the Quiz in order to be the first to submit the correct answers. Now that’s passion for international arbitration! Nkiru won a very special prize for her correct answers for which she will be contacted. In addition to…

CIICA, Conference, Corruption, CPEC, Pakistan, Power disputes

(Shearman & Sterling LLP)/ /1 Comment

On 15 and 16 November 2019, the Centre for International Investment and Commercial Arbitration (CIICA), organised a conference in Islamabad, Pakistan celebrating the inauguration of its Young Arbitration Group (YAG). The conference, titled “International Arbitration in Pakistan: Opportunities for the Next Generation” was, in many respects, a first-of-its-kind in Pakistan. CIICA, based in Lahore, is…

Energy, Investment, Mexico, Protection, Reform

(CMS)/ /Leave a comment

In 2013 Mexico embarked on a major energy reform by amending its Constitution, thereby allowing the participation of private investors in the exploration and extraction of oil & gas and the generation of electricity, particularly from clean and low-cost energy sources. Subsequently, Certificates of Clean Energy (“CELs“) were introduced on 31 October 2014 to promote…

Infrastructure, Investment Arbitration, Italy

(Bottega Di Bella) and (Galvez Pascual SLP)/ /2 Comments

It is our tentative prediction that a recent ruling from the Regional Administrative Court of Tuscany (TAR), which blocked the project to expand Florence Airport’s runaway – and hence, its passenger flow and corollary revenue – may “prepare the ground” for an investment arbitration dispute between Argentinian and Emirati investors and Italy.   Background In…

Asian International Arbitration Journal

(The Arbitration Chambers) and (Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /Leave a comment

The contents of this issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions:   Nobumichi Teramura, The Strengths and Weaknesses of Arguments Pertaining to Ex Aequo et Bono Ex aequo et bono is a means of resolving disputes in light of fairness and good conscience. The principle has been known to jurists…

2019 In Review, Abu Dhabi, DIFC, DIFC conduit jurisdiction, Dubai

and (Law Offices of Kiran N Gore PLLC; The George Washington University Law School)/ /Leave a comment

With 2019 concluded and a new decade on the horizon, it is worth reflecting on salient arbitration-related developments in the United Arab Emirates. As a jurisdiction, the UAE is not only a geographically-strategic venue for arbitration, but also a legally strategic one. As Dr. Gordon Blanke explained in his recent post, the UAE offers opportunities…

ASA Bulletin

(Editor in Chief, ASA Bulletin; LALIVE) and (LALIVE)/ /Leave a comment

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, De la musique avant toute chose, et pour cela préfère l’impair In his last message as ASA President, Elliott GEISINGER exhorts us to prefer the “uneven” in arbitration,…

2019 In Review, Achmea, European Union, ICSID, Micula

(Colibra Insurance)/ /Leave a comment

After the quite tumultuous 2018, which saw the seminal Achmea judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the subsequent awards on jurisdiction by a number of investment treaty arbitration tribunals, 2019 comes as a sequence and furtherance to developments that were in process in the course of the previous year. The…

Arbitration Agreement, Arbitration Agreements, IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest, Party appointed arbitrator, selection of arbitrators, UNCITRAL Model Law

(ANR LAW LLP)/ /Leave a comment

An asymmetrical arbitration clause is one where only one party can choose the method of resolving disputes between the parties. A slightly varied form of such a clause is usually contained in statutory arbitrations, which involve lop-sided arbitration clauses where only one party has the right to appoint the arbitrator. At first brush, these clauses…

Achmea, Energy, Energy Charter Treaty, EU Law, European Union, ISDS

(University of Passau) and (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP)/ /Leave a comment

The recently leaked treaty for the termination of intra-EU BITs can be seen as the culmination of an ongoing effort by the European Commission to discourage investment arbitration between Member States, reflecting, in the eyes of many, a tension between public international law and EU law. In spite of this, and even after the Court…