Party-appointed Arbitrators: the Lesser of Two Evils?
Recent events in Romania have added a new twist to the debate on party-appointed arbitrators after an arbitration institute centralized the power to appoint arbitrators in one person and decided to remunerate the individual. By now, arbitration practitioners should be well aware of the arguments for and against party-appointed arbitrators. There is little to add to the works of Jan Paulsson delineating the risk of bias inherent in the party-appointed arbitrators and the discussion that followed. Institutional appointment of arbitrators offers the ideal solution for mitigating the risk with party-appointed arbitrators, or does it?
Let’s turn the spotlight on Romania. What if an arbitration [...]
Anti-Arbitration: Get a job, kid!
This is the time of year when law students and young lawyers begin to apply for their summer internships or jobs in international dispute resolution. Many – probably most – will carefully draft their curriculum vitae to show their serious commitment to relevant academic studies, experience in international disputes or with law firms, and participation in recently completed international competitions (mock mediation and arbitrations, and moot courts).
This is, of course, very important in order for their CV’s to be given serious attention. It is the document that will open the door to interviews, and employers will not consider applicants who do not have the right professional backgro [...]
Arbitrating Competition Law Disputes: a matter of policy?
- By Francesca Richmond, Baker & McKenzie,
for YIAG
A commentary on the OECD Competition Commission conclusions on using arbitration to effectively resolve competition law disputes
By Francesca Richmond and Sarah West
There has been increasing use of arbitration to resolve disputes involving competition law issues in recent years. However, it is surprising that the number is not even greater given that arbitral processes are particularly suited to this type of complex, multi-jurisdictional dispute. Claimants can be nervous that the validity of such awards might be challenged on public policy grounds, however, in practice there are only limited circumstances in which a civil claim based upon competition law is likely to also engage public p [...]
The Unavoidability of Uncertainty: One Lesson from the Recent U.S. Court Ruling in Argentina v. BG Group
It has become fashionable in recent years, each time an ICSID annulment decision is released that takes issue with the procedures or reasoning of an ICSID tribunal, for commentators to bemoan the lack of certainty, predictability and finality that this reflects in the ICSID system for adjudicating investment treaty disputes between investors and host States. Some commentators urge a return to greater use of ad hoc UNCITRAL arbitration, or arbitration before institutions other than ICSID, to avoid the perceived vagaries of the ICSID annulment process. Yet commentators often forget that these alternatives carry their own risks of uncertainty, inherent in the national court review process tha [...]
Declaratory award held enforceable by English court: a healthy move for arbitration?
- By Phillip Capper, White & Case LLP,
for White & Case
Following the path of the hotly debated West Tankers decision, in African Fertilizers v BD Shipsnavo, the English Commercial Court held that a declaratory award is enforceable, allowing judgment to be entered on the same terms as the arbitral award. Such an order enables a party to obtain the material benefit of the award and indicates the continuing trend of the English courts in favour of arbitration and the enforcement of arbitral awards. However, this approach does raise questions for the health of the inter-twining co-existence of the arbitration and court systems.
The declaratory award (on the tribunal’s jurisdiction) was made pursuant to an arbitration agreement contained in a bi [...]
DISCOUNTED CASH FLOWS – PART 2, VALUATION AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
This is the second article in a three-part series summarising the main valuation methodologies used for the purposes of determining economic loss. In part one, I provided an overview of the market-approach methodology. I now turn to the income-based approach, focusing on the discounted cash flow (DCF) methodology.
In my previous article, I noted that a business is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. Under the market-approach to valuation, Company A’s worth may be informed at least in part by recent transactions in Company A itself and/ or businesses sufficiently comparable to Company A. The ability to apply usefully the market-approach ultimately depends on the availabili [...]
