A recent ruling of the Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation (see Appeal No. 519 of 2013, ruling of the Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation of 2nd October 2013) has done well to surprise the local arbitration community: It exudes a certain measure of inventiveness of the UAE Courts in matters of arbitration and demonstrates a…
London-based think-tank Chatham House is predicting an increase in the number of arbitrations between governments and companies in the extractive industries. Commercial stakes being particularly high in this sector, companies generally seek to resolve disputes with a host state through negotiation, viewing arbitration as the method of last resort. Yet Chatham House believes that there…
In a recent decision in the long-running Astro v. Lippo dispute,1)PT First Media TBK (formerly known as PT Broadband Multimedia TBK) v. Astro Nusantara International BV and others and another appeal (2013) SGCA 57. the Singapore Court of Appeal (the “Court“) grappled with the question of whether an unsuccessful party to an international arbitration award…
The objective of this post is to help in-house and outside counsel communicate better with each other when addressing the topic of international commercial arbitration. While both may be (highly) conversant on the topic, the perspectives of each are potentially very divergent and true communication between them may be incomplete and ineffective. My desire here…
This article argues for the inclusion of synopses in arbitral awards, particularly ICSID awards which tend to be widely publicized and often exceed 100 pages in length, and in some cases, 300 pages. As international investment disputes continue to “mushroom” (UNCTAD, 2012), it is important for the arbitration community to think of ways to maximize…
The new Recast Brussels I Regulation, which governs the jurisdiction of courts and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in the Member States of the European Union, has taken the strong position that arbitration will continue to be excluded from its coverage. The Recast Regulation will begin to apply to Member States in January 2015,…
and Pol Thielen, Managing Associate, Litigation, Linklaters LLP, Luxembourg Luxembourg is home to many international holding companies and special purpose vehicles. As a consequence, when disputes between shareholders or power struggles within the management arise, the resulting proceedings usually takes place at the level of the Luxembourg entity. One of the weapons of choice in…
Imagine you are an arbitrator being asked to decide on the validity of a flawed international arbitration agreement. The parties have spent great time and effort negotiating and finally agreeing on the arbitration agreement in question. The parties’ representatives engaged in marathon negotiation sessions. The representatives exchanged correspondence throughout the negotiation. They also preserved each…
For those who may have missed earlier announcements, I’m delighted to inform you of a new content set – Chinese Court Decision Summaries on Arbitration – we added to Kluwer Arbitration in September. Edited by WunschARB, the cases launched last month with 126 summaries of cases concerning enforcement of arbitral awards. Another 139 summaries have…
I have written previously[1] about the preemptive effect of Section 2 of the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), which provides: A written provision in any maritime transaction or a contract evidencing a transaction involving commerce to settle by arbitration a controversy thereafter arising out of such contract or transaction, or the refusal to perform the whole…
This morning, a colleague in Asia forwarded me an article with news of the latest efforts by Singapore to establish itself as a preferred location for international dispute resolution: an ambitious initiative by the country’s Law Ministry to make Singapore a regional destination for international commercial mediation, and plans to create a Singapore International Commercial…
A recent ruling of the Dubai Court of Appeal (see Case No. 1/2013 – Commercial Appeal, ruling of the Dubai Court of Appeal of 9 July 2013) gives new hope that despite the Dubai Court of Cassation’s disappointing approach in Case No. 156/2013 (see my blog of 21st October 2013), the UAE courts are, in…
The Republic of Ghana and the Republic of Argentina have moved to terminate an arbitral proceeding currently pending at the Permanent Court of Arbitration Readers of this blog may recall that Argentina initiated arbitration pursuant to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in response to the October 2012 detention in Ghana…
It is not uncommon to see the losing party of an ICSID arbitration filing a frivolous request for annulment merely to engage the opposing party in settlement negotiations. Another frequent abuse of ICSID’s annulment mechanism is to attempt to re-litigate the merits at the annulment stage. An annulment proceeding under the ICSID Rules typically takes…
The Permanent Court of Arbitration has just updated its website so as to offer information about the pending arbitration initiated by the Philippines against China pursuant to Annex VII of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Readers may recall that the Philippines requested arbitration in January of this year, citing a…
Contracting with States or State-controlled/assimilated entities is, and has always been, tricky, especially when a dispute arises between the (private) party or investor and the State or State-controlled/assimilated entity. An increasingly common problem is the attempt by the State to raise sovereign immunity from execution/enforcement to avoid enforcement of an arbitral award (and or judgment)…
Because international investment law so often involves the application of treaties, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties plays a key role in structuring its application. Of particular interest for many disputes are the rules of treaty interpretation contained in Articles 31, 32, and 33 of the VCLT. In that context, there are some…
In a ruling of 3rd February 2013 (Case No. 282/2012 – Real Estate Cassation, judgment of 3rd February 2013 of the Dubai Court of Cassation), the Dubai Court of Cassation has found against the recoverability of Counsel fees in arbitrations under the 2007 Rules of the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC). In doing so, the…
Over the last two decades the world has witnessed a spectacular growth of investor-state dispute resolution by arbitration (i.e. from a few dozen in 1992 shooting up to 514 cases by the end of 2012). But that trend could stall in the foreseeable future with the realization of the users that international arbitration (investor-state arbitration,…
The recent Rompetrol Group NV v Romania award provides rare guidance as to the requirements to be satisfied for a successful treaty claim arising from State conduct against individual company officers rather than the claimant investor itself. The investor claimed, inter alia, that the arrest, detention, criminal investigations and wire-tapping of its directors constituted State-sponsored…
It looks like the first state-to-state arbitration under the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) may have fizzled out. In August of 2011, I reported in this space that the United States of America was initiating arbitration against the Republic of Guatemala. The U.S.A. turned to arbitration after determining that Guatemala was failing to enforce…
On this first of April I thought it might be useful and timely to remind blog readers that the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to grant certiorari in BG Group Plc. v. Republic of Argentina. The Supreme Court asked the Solicitor General’s Office for its views on the cert. petition, which suggests that at…
At a conference a few years back, a well-known and respected arbitrator was speaking on the topic of predictability and consistency of arbitral decision making in investment treaty arbitration. The arbitrator asked whether arbitrators should fly solo or in flocks. He made a strong and persuasive case for the independence of the arbitrator, to fly…
A week ago today, it was my privilege to participate in the annual UNCITRAL/VIAC/YAAP Joint Conference, addressing hot topics in international arbitration. The conference successfully considered many key topics, including my topic, liability of counsel in international arbitrations. This topic, similar to my recent book topic (Kluwer Law International, Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration), is…
