CAS Code Amendments in force as from 01.01.2012 – CAS arbitrators selected more freely
At its session of 15 November 2011, the International Council of Arbitration for Sports (ICAS) amended Article 14 of the Statutes of the bodies working for the settlement of Sport-related Disputes (Article S14) and abandoned the old regime which provided that with regard to the list of CAS arbitrators, the ICAS had to respect a specific distribution, namely 1/5th of the arbitrators selected from among the persons proposed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), chosen from within its membership or from outside; 1/5th of the arbitrators selected from among the persons proposed by the International Federations for the Summer and Winter Olympics (IFs), chosen from within their membership [...]
How far does “any dispute related to the […] agreement” go?
In a decision dated 20 September 2011, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court held that the arbitration clause contained in a License Agreement for boxing equipment, interpreted by the CAS arbitral tribunal as referring to any dispute related to the said agreement, could equally cover disputes arising out of other related contracts, such as the contract for the sale of the same boxing equipment (4A_103/2011).
Facts
In 2005, a boxing association entered into a Licencing Agreement with a manufacturer of sports goods according to which the manufacturer was entitled to manufacture and sell boxing equipment approved by the association against the payment of royalties. The contract contained the followin [...]
Formal requirements for witness testimony in arbitration proceedings in Switzerland
The High Court of the Canton of Zurich had to examine in a recent case whether the allegedly false testimony of a witness in arbitration proceedings was punishable under the Article 307 of the Swiss Criminal Code as perjury.
Up to now, it was disputed by scholars whether the requirements for witness testimony in state court proceedings also applied in arbitration.
The Court referred to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court’s case law according to which the validity of a witness testimony is governed by the applicable procedural laws. In the absence of specific provisions, it is not required that the transcripts/minutes be read to the witness after his testimony and that the witness signs the trans [...]
The right to a tribunal appointed expert
In a decision dated 14 June 2011 and published on 7 July 2011, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court dismissed an appeal to set aside an arbitral award holding that the right to the appointment of an expert by the tribunal is not violated where the respective request was not made in a timely manner and in proper form (4A_617/2010).
Decision
X (a Turkish company) and Y (a Polish company) were in dispute over the question of which party was responsible for the delays in the execution of the contractual work. The dispute was brought before an ICC tribunal seated in Zurich. With respect to the disputed question, each party submitted to the arbitral tribunal a technical expert report.
In an award of 30 [...]
Importing the “negative effect” of the principle of competence-competence into Swiss law?
According to article 7 of the Swiss Private International Law (PILA), if the parties have entered into an arbitration agreement, the Swiss Court before which the action is brought shall decline its jurisdiction unless it finds that the agreement is null and void, inoperative or incapable of being performed. An initiative to amend article 7 of the PILA statute in the sense that in international matters the arbitrators should decide themselves on their competence, is pending already for some time in the Swiss Parliament and in the last month discussions and diverging opinions have increased. The topic has only just been debated at a meeting of arbitrators and arbitration practitioners at the A [...]
Swiss Federal Tribunal rejects multiple standards of independence and impartiality among arbitrators
In a landmark decision dated 29 October 2010, published on 19 November 2010 (case 4A_234/2010), the Swiss Federal Tribunal dismissed a motion to set aside a Court of Arbitration for Sport (“CAS”) award based on the alleged impartiality of one of the co-arbitrators. The Court firstly clarified that the independence and impartiality expected from any arbitrator were the same, irrespective of his position within the arbitral panel. Furthermore, it stated that there was no justification to apply a more stringent standard of independence and impartiality to CAS arbitrators.
Background
By decision of 11 May 2009, the famous Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde was given a two-year doping ban by the [...]
