The US District Court for the District of Vermont, part of the Second Circuit that also embraces New York and Connecticut, recently compelled a Canadian businessman (Mr. Kastner) to arbitrate his patent dispute against a Swedish footwear company’s US subsidiary called Icebug USA (“Icebug”), even though Icebug was not a signatory to the arbitration agreement…
In an Award on Jurisdiction rendered earlier this year under the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (the “ICSID Convention”) in ICSID Case No. ARB/11/7 – National Gas S.A.E. v. Arab Republic of Egypt (a copy of which is electronically available on the official Investment Treaty Arbitration…
In a recent lecture at the DIFC Courts (see Lecture Series No. 5, Practice Direction providing for the wider enforcement of Court Judgments through DIFC-LCIA Arbitration Centre, 19 November 2014), Chief Justice Michael Hwang announced that the DIFC Court Practice Direction No. X of 2014 amending Practice Direction No. 2 of 2012 DIFC Courts’ Jurisdiction…
In a recent ruling of the DIFC Court of Appeal (see Case CA-005-2-14, ruling of the DIFC Court of Appeal of 3rd November 2014), Justice Sir David Steel affirmed the previous ruling of the DIFC Court of First Instance in Banyan Tree v. Meydan Group LLC (see Case No. ARB 003/2013 – Banyan Tree Corporate…
I am writing to announce an opening for the position of Associate Editor for the Kluwer Arbitration Blog. The Associate Editor will report directly to me and work closely with the Kluwer team and Crina Baltag, our other Associate Editor. The essential duties of the Associate Editor are (1) collecting, editing and reviewing guest submissions…
and Michael Leathes Seismic tremors emanating from London’s Guildhall on October 29th 2014 are set to send change-inducing shockwaves, around the international dispute resolution community. It is widely known that dispute resolution’s customers, the disputants, have different needs and interests from the supply side of the market such as external counsel, ADR providers, and educators….
Time Sensitive Over the next two weeks, two surveys will be gathering input from dispute resolution professionals on the challenge of enforcing settlement agreements across borders. The surveys are intended to provide empirical data to aid the decision making process for the proposed UNCITRAL convention on the international enforcement of settlements reached in mediation. IMI…
In an ambitious stride to become the leading maritime hub in the Middle East, the Emirate of Dubai is set to establish the Emirates Maritime Arbitration Centre, which in shorthand will be known as “EMAC”. Plans for the anticipated establishment of the Centre have recently been announced by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the…
By Matthias Scherer and Sam Moss, LALIVE In a judgment dated 7 July 2014, which was made public on 20 August 2014 (case no. 4A_124/2014), the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (the “Supreme Court”) addressed the enforceability of a precondition for arbitration in a multi-tier dispute resolution provision, namely the requirement to submit a dispute to…
By Ana Carolina Weber 1)Partner, Modesto Carvalhosa. and Eleonora Coelho 2)Partner, Castro, Barros, Sobral, Gomes The views expressed in this article are those of the authors alone and should not be regarded as representative of, or binding upon ArbitralWomen and/or the authors’ respective law firms. The development of arbitration in Brazil has been accelerated in…
The advance on costs at the outset of the arbitration ensures that arbitrators are covered for the fees and expenses made upon rendering their final award. It is common practice both in institutional and ad hoc arbitration that the procedure will only continue – or even start – upon payment in full of the advance…
Arbitration service providers often seem to handle parties, especially in-house counsel, with gentle kid gloves. A good example is any “roundtable of in-house counsel”, which is now as common at arbitration conferences as children’s tables are at weddings. Just like at weddings, the adults occasionally wander over to check on things and ask, “did you…
In a case my business had a few years ago, the parties’ contract specified expedited procedures under the AAA’s Commercial Arbitration Rules. Immediately after the request for arbitration had been filed, the case manager of the ICDR, the AAA’s international branch, sent the parties a letter to warn us about this.(1) She pointed out that…
UNCITRAL’s Working Group II (Arbitration and Conciliation) will begin its 47th session today, July 7 , in New York. Among the items to be discussed is a proposal for a multilateral convention on the enforceability of international commercial settlement agreements reached through mediation. (See also this link.) The proposal, which has been put forth by…
Critical negotiation moments punctuate the entire timeline of an international arbitration, from before it starts to even after it is over. And when these moments arise, a practitioner’s ability to negotiate effectively can sometimes be as important as their mastery of the subject matter. After all, what use is technical skill if you cannot deploy…
In an encouraging ruling of earlier this year (see Case No. 249 of 2013 – Middle East Foundations LLC v. Meydan Group LLC (formerly Meydan LLC), Commercial Appeal, ruling of the Dubai Court of Appeal of 15 January 2014), the Dubai Court of Appeal confirmed the time extension provisions for rendering final awards under the…
On 16 April 2014, the Parliament of the European Union has published legislative resolution No P7_TA-PROV (2014) 0419 on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing framework for managing financial responsibility linked to investor-state dispute settlement tribunals established by international agreements to which the European Union is a…
By Maria Eugenia Ramirez and Roland M. Potts According to a recent study, as many as seventy-five percent (75%) of contracts entered into by the 500 largest global multinationals contain arbitration clauses.1)“Hogan Lovells commissioned a research study among the FT Global 500 largest global multinationals, as well as a selection of its own multinational clients,…
By Peter Godwin, Elaine Wong and James Allsop, Hebert Smith Freehills The Japan Commercial Arbitration Association (“JCAA”) has introduced an amended version of its Commercial Arbitration Rules (the “New Rules”). The New Rules, which contain comprehensive amendments, came into force on 1 February 2014 and will apply to all arbitrations initiated on or after that…
Arbitration proceedings sometimes spawn a host of parallel court proceedings. It is not unheard for parties to seek to instrumentalise courts, sometimes with the complicity of the courts themselves, to escape the jurisdiction of an arbitral tribunal. Such conduct may, however, expose parties to liability for breach of the arbitration agreement, as was confirmed by…
This is a response to yesterday’s post by Duarte Gorjão Henriques, “Incorporating IBA Guidelines Into A ‘Code of Ethics’: A Step Too Far?” My unambiguous answer to his title question is “right direction, not far enough!”. My response is from the perspective of an in-house counsel involved in negotiating dispute clauses in cross-border contracts. Henriques,…
On 23 January 2014, the Centre for Judicial Education and Research (CJER) at the City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) hosted a lecture delivered by Ms. Olga Boltenko, Arbitral Clerk to Neil Kaplan CBE QC SBS. In addition to discussing the advantages and disadvantages of both ad hoc and institutional arbitration, the lecture covered various…
As you may already know, Gary Born is about to finalize a new edition of his magnum opus, International Commercial Arbitration. With 4,500 pages soon to be published (April 2014) in three comprehensive volumes, this revised work will provide practitioners and academics with the most comprehensive and up-to-date commentary on international commercial arbitration. We are…
The use of arbitration in large scale disasters – both natural and financial has increased in recent years. Alongside this increase has been the growing use of arbitration to resolve an increasingly wide array of claims in insurance, tort, and emergency public assistance. In the realm of financial claims, arbitration is used widely in the…
