The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (“SIAC”) has issued new rules that came into force on April 1, 2013. The rules changes are accompanied by new Practice Notes for cases administered by SIAC under its rules and the UNCITRAL rules that also came into force on the same date. While the changes do not reflect a significant overhaul of the prior version of the institution’s rules, they do contain important changes of which practitioners should be aware.

The 2013 rules are the fifth set of rules issued by SIAC, which promulgated previous versions in 1991, 1997, 2007, and 2010. The SIAC rules are one of several sets of arbitral rules to be updated in the last few years; other [...]

By Crenguta Leaua and Stefan Dudas (Leaua & Asociatii)

A new Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) including two separate sections on domestic and international arbitration entered into force in Romania on 15^th of February. With this step, Romanian law continues to differentiate between domestic and international arbitration and to allow for a flexible regime for international arbitration. The very purpose of the new arbitration regulation is explicitly described by the Ministry of Justice in the accompanying report: “to transform this alternative dispute settlement mechanism [arbitration] into an attractive and modern procedure that, through time-efficiency and flexibility, will lead to reducing [...]

This post is a little different… I am in the process of revising my treatise, International Commercial Arbitration (Kluwer 2009), and would like to solicit comments from readers of the Kluwer Arbitration Blog on various chapters of the book. I would be happy to send individual Chapters, in their revised form, to those interested in providing comments.

The treatise aspires to provide a comprehensive treatment of the law, practice, policies and theoretical foundations of international commercial arbitration. It focusses on international, rather than any particular national, authority and solutions, addressing in particular the New York Convention, UNCITRAL Model Law and national arbitrat [...]

A new study of dispute resolution practices in Fortune 1,000 corporations shows that many large companies are using binding arbitration less often and relying more on mediated negotiation and other approaches aimed at resolving disputes informally, quickly and inexpensively. The 2011 survey of corporate counsel developed by researchers at Cornell University’s Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution, the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law, and the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR) produced results that appear to be strongly reflective of U.S. practices and trends, but thoughtful practitioners and scholars will [...]

Construction work at the Florence Chamber of Commerce has forced the city’s arbitration and mediation services to relocate to new offices the city was able to scrounge up.

This is the view from the fourth-floor conference room assigned to a mediation I attended yesterday. Talk about coping well in the face of adversity…

Throughout many parts of Europe, municipal chambers of commerce have long helped businesses resolve their disputes. Historically, they have provided arbitration services; more recently, and more frequently, they are adding mediation.

In broad terms, the chambers are structured according to two models, at least in the way there are perceived by parties.

In a country of [...]

In an earlier post, I’d highlighted five notable legal highlights from 2012. Below, and somewhat belatedly, I offer my post-mortem on some key policy developments from 2012.

1. Venezuela and South Africa beat a retreat

Venezuela’s exit from ICSID was perhaps the most visible policy story of 2012. The move could bolster the caseload of the Permanent Court of Arbitration over the next few years. However, Venezuela has much unfinished business at ICSID – with 28 claims still pending there as of this writing. So, it remains to be seen whether the government will swallow its pride and honor any award emanating from the Washington-based Centre.

While Venezuela’s retreat from ICSID got a l [...]