Introduction Parties to international commercial transactions not infrequently find themselves in disputes over whether a valid arbitration agreement exists between them or whether a court or an arbitral tribunal has the jurisdiction to hear this issue. These situations are especially perplexing because – despite the general international acceptance of the “kompetenz-kompetenz” doctrine – national laws…
“Conversation – respectful, engaged, reciprocal, calling forth some of our greatest powers of empathy and understanding – is the moral form of a world governed by the dignity of difference.” Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, quoted by Ian Macduff in “Signs of hope” Following on from yesterday’s post, this second post offers…
“[…] one of the several paradoxes of mediation is that in many cases, the more logical, the more persuasive the argument, the more contrary and extreme the response. And in fact, what is needed, is the ability of advocates, and more so mediators, to build trust and create rapport. A mystical concept for some, instantly…
The Lisbon Treaty granted to the EU the competences on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The exercise of those competences on FDI has not been smooth in the area of Investor-to-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), in particular, regarding the application of ISDS between a Member State and the investor of another Member State either whether those ISDS…
Introduction The Delhi High Court’s recent judgment in Union of India v. Khaitan Holdings (Mauritius) marks the third instance of an Indian court adjudicating upon issues related to arbitration under an international investment treaty. Within these three judgments, courts have fundamentally disagreed on a crucial point – the applicability of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act,…
I address the regulation and practice of arbitration in Azerbaijan, a topic which has not been discussed widely on an international level. While there is a significant uniformity in international arbitration legislations around the world due to the New York Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (hereinafter the “New York Convention”) and…
In a significant development for the region, Mainland China and Hong Kong have announced a bilateral arrangement by which the Chinese courts will now recognise and enforce interim measures in support of institutional arbitration seated in Hong Kong (the “Arrangement”).1) Arrangement Concerning Mutual Assistance in Court-ordered Interim Measures in Aid of Arbitral Proceedings by the…
In RJ v HB [2018] EWHC 2833 (Comm) (‘RJ’), Andrew Baker J (‘Baker J’) found that the facts disclosed a serious irregularity under s68 of the English Arbitration Act 1996 (‘the Act’).1)The author wishes to thank Ms Rachel Foxton, Mr Harry Francis Millerchip, and Ms Jenna Hare. The views in this article should not be…
While the gender imbalance in arbitrator appointments is widely known,1) L. Greenwood, Getting a Better Balance on International Arbitration Tribunals, Arbitration International, Issue 4 (2012). the causes are still debated. Before our exhaustive study, however, no one had seriously examined gender taxonomy as a possible cause of variations in the selection of male and female…
The 6th Annual Joint Conference on International Energy Arbitration, co-hosted by the Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA), the Institute for Energy Law (IEL), and the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), took place on January 24-25, 2019, in Houston, Texas. Under the guidance of conference co-chairs Andrew T. Clarke (ExxonMobil…
Mr. André, welcome to the Kluwer Arbitration Blog. We were pleased to have Mr. Hanft join us recently and are thrilled to have the opportunity to also share your perspective with our readers. To start, can you briefly introduce yourself and explain your role at CPR? Thank you very much for the invitation Kiran. At…
The year of the pig was off to a good start in Hong Kong at the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) Reform Conference organised by the Hong Kong Department of Justice and the Asian Academy of International Law on 13 February 2019. Like the fabled pig, ISDS reform has been slow in coming, and the aim…
The admissibility of illegal evidence in international commercial arbitration is for sure, at the moment, a widely discussed topic among law students and arbitration lawyers thanks to this year’s problem at the Willem C Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot competition (“Vis Moot Problem”). The Kluwer Arbitration Blog (“KAB”) covered the topic extensively as well in…
Having practising in the art law field since 2012, I have drawn the following observations from this experience: litigation is not the most time-efficient and cost-efficient approach to adequately resolving disputes in the art sector; the absence of secrecy in court proceedings is a major issue for the buy side of the art market, i.e….
For many years, arbitration has been the de facto vehicle of choice for the resolution of investor-state disputes. However, despite the wholesale and widespread adoption of mediation in every sort of dispute, mediation is used rarely in investor-state disputes (Systra v. Philippines is one example). As of this writing, only 11 (1.3% of total ICSID…
Without any doubt, international commercial arbitration found its place in the system of international dispute settlement. Many natural and legal persons choose to solve their disputes via the means of arbitration and in most of the cases arbitration is international in many aspects: Parties are from different countries, arbitrators are of different nationalities, sitting in…
We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions: Dina D. Prokić, SIAC Proposal on Cross-Institution Consolidation Protocol: Can It Be Transplanted into Investment Arbitration? Investment arbitration has been increasingly criticized as being, among other things, slow, cumbersome and unpredictable, in light of…
Introduction In their Fourth Turning Theory, Howe and Strauss put forward the thesis that every cycle in Anglo-American history had concluded with a great crisis, a fourth turning, from which a new order with a new set of beliefs had emerged. According to their predictions, a new crisis should have started sometime around 2005 and…
Unlike some Western arbitration institutions which enacted institutional arbitration rules dedicated to construction disputes, such as the 2015 American Arbitration Association (AAA) Construction Industry Arbitration Rules, to date, the leading Russian arbitration providers have not developed any specific rules for construction-related disputes. However, such disputes hold rather high positions in the caseload, with a peak…
Background The Dutch-speaking division of the Brussels Enterprise Court has been understaffed in recent years. On 5 February 2019, the Court’s president issued a press release (here) revealing rather troublesome news that, imminently, the Court will comprise only six full time judges and hearings will be delayed by some two years. The Brussels Enterprise Court is…
Matters Arising on Proposed Changes to Arbitration Law in Nigeria In February 2018, the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria passed the much-anticipated Arbitration and Conciliation Act (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill 2017 (‘Bill’). Since then, the Bill has been pending before the House of Representatives (HoR) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the second…
Overview On 11 February 2019, Beijing Arbitration Commission/Beijing International Arbitration Center (‘BAC/BIAC’) launched its draft of ‘Beijing Arbitration Commission/Beijing International Arbitration Center International Investment Arbitration Rules’ (the ‘BAC Rules’) for public comments, comprised of its main text and six appendixes. The BAC Rules are the second investment arbitration rules promulgated by a Chinese international arbitration…
Introduction Each spring, the global international arbitration community arrives in Vienna for the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot and in Hong Kong for its younger counterpart, the Vis Moot East. Students, after many months of research, drafting, and practice, are eager to present the fruits of their hard work through oral advocacy. Practitioners,…
Mr. Hanft, welcome to the Kluwer Arbitration Blog! I appreciate the opportunity to share your perspective with our readers at an exciting moment, where conversations about politics, diversity, and technology are intersecting and transforming the way globalized corporations and their lawyers conceive of and approach dispute resolution. Before we delve in, can you briefly introduce…
