For the last couple of years Working Group V at UNCITRAL has been working on a project dedicated to the applicable law in insolvency proceedings. The law governing the effects of insolvency in arbitration has become one of the most contentious topics in the negotiations. The draft provisions subject to discussion in the 63rd session,…

The economic havoc wreaked by the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a 10-year high of corporate bankruptcies in the United States in 2020. While bankruptcy levels across Europe have fallen amid the pandemic, a sharp spike in corporate bankruptcies is expected as economic support programs phase out in the coming months. This will increase the…

Corruption, annulment of arbitral awards and court intervention mark the main developments for 2020 in Latin America.  Our contributors this year reported on the most important judicial decisions and legislative measures impacting the legal framework of various jurisdictions in the region. A new ‘hot topic’ arising from the COVID-19 pandemic is the interplay between arbitration…

One of the many consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and the world-wide economic crisis has been the sharp increase of insolvency filings before national courts. Latin America is no stranger to this situation, having been part of the surge in business insolvencies. Brazil, in particular, has been a recent insolvency hotspot within Latin America. This…

The Russian Supreme Court recently rendered a decision declaring disputes on challenging agreements with banks in a special financial situation, called by lawyers – “troubled” banks, as non-arbitrable [Bank Trust v. Fosint Ltd., decision dated 16 August 2016 number 305-ЭС16-4051] (“Trust case”). In this case, a “troubled” bank, meaning a bank in which a temporary…

The effects of bankruptcy on arbitration remain unclear and they differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Although being oft-discussed in doctrine as well in court and arbitral practice, there is still no uniform answer to the question of which law governs such effects. We saw this question again in the Svea Court of Appeal’s [“Svea Court”]…

The Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Poland prepared and published a draft act (“the Draft Law”) (a draft law on promoting amicable dispute resolution methods, available in Polish here ). The Draft Law proposes amendments to the Polish Arbitration Law (part five of the Polish Code of Civil Procedure (“CCP”), Official Journal of…

After the fall of communism, Hungary embraced modern arbitration law. Act LXXI of 1994 (“the Arbitration Law”) created a comprehensive legal regime for both domestic and international arbitration, based on the UNCITRAL Model Law. State courts generally exercised a liberal approach in connection with arbitral proceedings and awards. However, some recent developments in Hungarian law…