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Roger Alford (Editor)

Posts by Roger Alford (Editor)

Corporate Counsel Discuss Arbitration Cost and Delay

“With over 20,000 contracts executed each year, it is simply impossible to address the problems of cost and delay in arbitration through artful drafting.” That was the gist of comments made by a general counsel of a major corporation at last month’s ITA workshop. To which another general counsel on the panel replied, [...] read more »

England vs. United States

The beauty of the World Cup, and especially this game, is that it’s a marvelous opportunity to demonstrate one small piece of lingering English superiority. This “showdown” between England … is in fact a made-for-history moment to score one back for the old country. It’s the one darned thing they know they can [...] read more »

The Death of the Secondary Boycott Against Israel

At the recent Northwestern Law School conference on the Israeli-Arab Dispute and International Law I had the good fortune to address one of the few bright spots in current Arab-Israeli relations.
Most international law scholars of the Arab-Israeli conflict seem to know little about international trade, and focus almost exclusively on the laws of war in [...] read more »

Chevron’s Discovery of Crude Outtakes

Yesterday a federal court in New York granted Chevron’s request for discovery of outtakes from the 2009 documentary Crude about the multi-billion dollar litigation in Ecuador. Chevron’s request was pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1782, which authorizes a judge in the United States to order discovery of evidence to be used in proceedings before [...] read more »

Ten Ways to Avoid the Americanization of International Arbitration

The ABA Journal has an interesting article on the Americanization of international arbitration. There’s nothing particularly new to our readers in this article. It’s a theme that my friend and colleague Tom Stipanowich has written about extensively. I’ve written a bit about the subject as well. But the fact that the story [...] read more »

Using Arbitration to Promote Due Process and Challenge Foreign Judgments

In the long-running battle between Chevron and Ecuador over environmental damage, a federal court in New York has denied Ecuador’s motion to stay arbitration of a Ecuador-U.S. BIT claim. In September 2009, Chevron filed a notice of arbitration alleging, among other things, that “Ecuador has breached … the Ecuador-United States BIT, including its obligation [...] read more »