The General Division of the High Court of the Republic of Singapore (“SGHC”) in the matter of Beltran, Julian Morena and another v. Terraform Labs Pte Ltd and others [2023] SGHC 340 recently dismissed an appeal against an Assistant Registrar’s decision denying a stay in favour of arbitration on the basis that the First Defendant…
This post highlights the Third Edition of the Washington Arbitration Week 2022 panel on “Class or Collective Action in Investment Arbitration,” held at the offices of Crowell & Moring LLP on December 2, 2022. The panel was moderated by WAW Co-Founder Mr. Ian Laird (Crowell & Moring/Georgetown Law). He was joined by Mr. Matthew Drossos…
In a class action lawsuit, a plaintiff or group of plaintiffs bring claims on behalf of similarly situated individuals. The legislatures in some civil law countries including Korea, have recently proposed or implemented measures allowing or expanding the use of class actions in their court systems. Considering that Korea currently does not have in place…
The Third Annual Schiefelbein Global Dispute Resolution Conference took place on Friday, January 15, 2021. The conference was hosted by the Lodestar Dispute Resolution Center at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and generously supported by Les and Linda Schiefelbein. This post distills selected topics and highlights from the conference – including comments from…
Introduction The United States and its neighbor to the north, Canada, share the world’s longest border, a common language, and similar values, resulting in one of the most stable and mutually beneficial international business relationships in the world. Indeed the United States is Canada’s largest trading partner, and Canada is the United States’ second largest…
Brumadinho Dam’s Rupture1)The dam collapse happened on 25 January 2019.. On the first day, the fire department, responsible for the rescues, estimated that the number of victims was about 200. Ten days after the disaster, the death toll was confirmed to be 134, while 199 were still missing. Trigger Warning: At this link one can…
A. Introduction Investments in a foreign country entail risks for the investors. These include the possibility that their investments will be nationalized or expropriated if, for example, a political change occurs. There is also a risk of loss as a result of war, armed conflict, revolution, a state of national emergency, etc. However, on 29…
The development of effective instruments for collective redress is a widely discussed topic among European politicians, consumer protectors, legal scholars and dispute resolution lawyers. The professional discourse was recently fuelled by the Volkswagen emission scandal (also referred to as “emissiongate” or “dieselgate”), which, at least in the US, was already subject to collective actions. Another…
The latest large consumer data breach, this time involving Equifax, has also shed a sharp light on an ongoing controversy about consumers’ access to justice. In taking steps to ameliorate its PR crisis, Equifax found itself right in the middle of the dispute about class actions and arbitration clauses. On September 7, Equifax revealed that…
Mass claims proceedings have become increasingly important in the current dispute resolution scenario prevailing in the world. In international law, the role mass claims proceedings play is beyond dispute. Tribunals such as the Iran-US Claims Tribunal & United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) have certainly highlighted the importance which has been played by mass claims tribunals….
The views expressed are those of the author alone and should not be regarded as representative of or binding upon the author’s institution or the ArbitralWomen. Adam Raviv recently posted an entry about the Eleventh Annual ITA-ASIL Conference on class and mass claims in arbitration. Adam’s summary provides excellent insights into the importance of large-scale…
Brazil has well-developed systems both in arbitration and class actions and yet the use of arbitration as a class-litigation dispute resolution has been little discussed. In the USA, on the other hand, discussions on the matter abound (see especially Supreme Court Bazzle v. Green Tree, Stolt-Nielsen S.A v. Animalfeeds International Corp. and AT&T Mobility LLC…
In the wake of hotly contested domestic and international developments, speakers at the Annual ITA-ASIL Conference in Washington, DC on April 9 gave varied and sometimes conflicting perspectives on the use of mass and class claims in arbitration. Mass Claims in Investment Arbitration – A Favorable View In her keynote speech, Carolyn B. Lamm of…
and Lucas Bento, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, New York The United States Supreme Court’s recent decision in Oxford Health Plans LLC v. Sutter, 569 U.S. __ (2013) (the “Decision”), is the latest installment on whether class arbitration has met its end in the United States. For now, class arbitration survives, subject to the…
On November 9, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant. A decision will be rendered in 2013. At issue is the enforceability of an arbitration clause that includes a class action waiver in a federal antitrust case. The case has attracted considerable attention in the United States,…
The United States Supreme Court’s decision in AT&T v. Concepcion last April appeared to signal the demise of class arbitration in the United States. That decision upheld a consumer contract arbitration agreement that waived the consumer’s right to initiate a class action lawsuit or arbitration. In its recent D.R. Horton v. Cuda decision (Case 12-CA-25764),…
International arbitration has long played an important role in resolving disputes that arise out of political and economic crises. “Arbitration in Times of Crisis” is the theme of the 9th Annual ITA-ASIL Conference on 28 March 2012 in Washington, D.C. (see program). The conference will focus on lessons from the past use of arbitral mechanisms…
With the release of the Dissenting Opinion in Abaclat v. Agentina, we now have the benefit of a forceful critique of the majority’s decision that the Abaclat Tribunal has jurisdiction to hear the claims of over 60,000 Italian investors against Argentina under the ICSID Convention and the Argentina-Italy BIT. Professor Georges Abi-Saab’s Dissenting Opinion (the…
In its 4 August 2011 Decision on Jurisdiction and Admissibility, the majority of the Tribunal in Abaclat and Others (Case formerly known as Giovanna a Beccara and Others) v. Argentine Republic affirmed that it had jurisdiction to hear the claims of over 60,000 Italian investors against Argentina arising out of Argentina’s default on various sovereign…
This post addresses the U.S. Supreme Court’s misadventures with class arbitration over the past decade. Those misadventures have resulted in striking confusion and waste of resources by litigants, courts and arbitral institutions. More broadly, the Court’s conflicting and often ill-considered decisions on the subject now threaten to undermine U.S. arbitration law more generally – turning…
Stolt-Nielsen v. Animal Feeds, 130 S. Ct. 1758 (2010), is an extraordinary case. In Stolt-Nielsen, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the award of a distinguished arbitral tribunal essentially because the tribunal did not reach the result favored by the Supreme Court. In Stolt-Nielsen, charterers were arbitrating against shipping companies, alleging violations of antitrust law. The…
