Arbitration Agreement, Canada, Domestic Courts, Employment arbitration, Uber v. Heller, UNCITRAL Model Law

(Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP)/ /3 Comments

On June 26, 2020, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) released a decision with significant implications for international businesses by placing significant limits on the application of arbitration clauses.   Background The case, Uber Technologies Inc. v Heller (2020 SCC 16 ) (“Heller”), involved a challenge to Uber’s standard agreement with drivers requiring disputes to…

Art and Arbitration, Confidentiality, India

, (Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University Lucknow)/ /Leave a comment

The Status of Art Arbitrations in India As per a 2018 report, the Indian art industry is plagued by legal ambiguities, forgeries and lack of transparency, and infrastructural support, making it a fertile ground for disputes. A steady increase in the number of high-net-worth individuals and a surge in online auctions have contributed to the…

Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Crimea, International arbitration, Investment Arbitration

(Lindeborg Counsellors at Law)/ /Leave a comment

The Crimea crisis has received attention by UNCLOS and investment tribunals, as well as by the Swiss Federal Tribunal in appeals and annulment proceedings. However, their analyses have been limited to jurisdiction. The implicated issue was whether the (bilateral) investment treaties (BIT) of the occupying, and a fortiori annexing, State could be applied extraterritorially. These…

Annual Report, Brazil, Diversity, English Law, Governing Law, International arbitration, LCIA Arbitration

(PLMJ Law Firm) and (Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates)/ /Leave a comment

On 19 May 2020 the London Court of International Arbitration (hereinafter the LCIA or the Court) issued its annual casework report for 2019. This paper aims to present and analyse the numbers revealed in the report. The focus will be on the development of international arbitration in terms of market, diversity and inclusion, and applicable…

Estoppel, International Court of Justice, Lotus Principle, New York Convention, New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, Non-signatory, Permanent Court of Arbitration, Permanent Court of International Justice, SCOTUS, United States, United States Courts, USA

(Hughes Hubbard & Reed)/ /Leave a comment

On June 1, 2020, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in GE Energy Power Conversion France SAS v. Outokumpu Stainless USA. The Court held that the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (“New York Convention”) does not prohibit a Contracting State from applying the domestic law doctrine…

Kluwer Arbitration Blog

(Stockholm University)/ /Leave a comment

The Editorial Board of Kluwer Arbitration Blog announces the opening of the following position with Kluwer Arbitration Blog: Assistant Editor for East and Central Asia.   The Assistant Editor reports directly to the coordinating Associate Editor and is expected to (1) collect, edit and review guest submissions from the designated regions for posting on the…

Investment agreements, Investment Treaties, Reform, State-State Dispute Settlement, State-to-state arbitration, Trade and investment agreements, Trans-Pacific Partnership, USMCA

(Australian National University) and (Law Offices of Kiran N Gore PLLC; The George Washington University Law School)/ /Leave a comment

Throughout this week, our contributors from around the globe have offered insights into the USMCA/CUSMA/T-MEC, which enters into force next week. Our contributors have contextualised USMCA against both regional and global developments. Many of them noted the link between USMCA and NAFTA, between USMCA and regional politics, and between USMCA and broader global trends related…

Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Australia, International arbitration, Investment Arbitration, United States, USMCA

(University of Wollongong)/ /1 Comment

The investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) arrangements provided in Chapter 14 of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) are a radical shift from those that have been in force for the past 25 years under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). As explored in Wednesday’s post, Canada has effectively opted-out of ISDS under…

Financial Services Arbitration, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment law, NAFTA, Trade and investment agreements, USMCA

(Clark Hill PLC)/ /Leave a comment

As North America embarks into a post-NAFTA era with the USMCA, it is crucial to analyze the new agreement’s disciplines. The USMCA Investment Chapter, for instance, has been the subject of many articles that have reviewed relevant differences with respect to NAFTA, particularly on investment arbitration. This post will explore the arbitration rules applicable to investment disputes…

Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investment Treaties, United States, USMCA

(Jenner & Block LLP)/ /Leave a comment

The Investment Chapter of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement “USMCA,” Chapter 14 has had a controversial trajectory.  Chapter 14 reflects a remarkable evolution in United States (“U.S.”) policy on the protection of its investors and their investments in Canada and Mexico.  It is remarkable because – from 2023 – it will limit the scope of protected…

Canada, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment law, USMCA

(De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek) and (Three Crowns LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Amid global economic uncertainty, the years-long project of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (“USMCA”) (also known as “the new-NAFTA” or “NAFTA 2.0”) has finally reached fruition. On March 13, 2020, Canada became the final North American party to ratify the agreement and now the treaty will enter into force on July 1, 2020. Kluwer Arbitration Blog has…

Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Investment Arbitration, NAFTA, USMCA

, (Dentons)/ /Leave a comment

On July 1, 2020, the investment chapter of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) expired quietly in its North American home, at the age of 26.  It left behind a generation of investment treaties and investment chapters in free trade agreements that are its direct descendants.  It served as inspiration for many other agreements. …

Canada, International agreement, International arbitration, Investment agreements, Investment Arbitration, Investment protection, Investment Treaties, Mexico, NAFTA, United States, USMCA

(Law Offices of Kiran N Gore PLLC; The George Washington University Law School) and (Australian National University)/ /Leave a comment

On July 1, 2020, the United States – Mexico – Canada Agreement (USMCA) will enter into force. Although the media widely refers to the treaty by its American name, USMCA, it also carries two other names: Canada has adopted it as the Canada – United States – Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), while Mexico has settled on…

Arbitration, Arbitration Awards, Arbitration Proceedings, Enforcement, Investment Arbitration

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The filing of new actions continues in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (“D.D.C.”) to enforce ICSID awards rendered against Spain. The latest petition was filed on April 24, 2020, by Watkins Holdings S.à.r.l. and Watkins (Ned) B.V., both affiliates of the UK company Bridgepoint Advisers Limited, seeking the enforcement of…

Deliberations, Dissenting opinions, Germany, Ordre Public, Set aside an arbitral award

(Taylor Wessing)/ /Leave a comment

The Frankfurt Court of Appeals (Oberlandesgericht) has recently taken the view that the publication of a dissenting opinion by the minority arbitrator violates the procedural ordre public, thus constituting a reason to set aside the arbitral award pursuant to Section 1059 para. 2 no 2 b) of the German Code of Civil Procedure (Zivilprozessordnung, ZPO).1)To…

Code of Conduct, ICSID, ICSID Arbitration, ICSID Convention, ICSID Proceedings, UNCITRAL

(University of Paris Descartes)/ /3 Comments
ArbitralWomen

On 1 May 2020, ICSID and UNCITRAL released the long-awaited Draft Code of Conduct for Adjudicators in Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) (“Draft Code”) as previously reported and discussed. Article 1.1 of the Draft Code provides that it applies to “all persons serving as adjudicators in ISDS proceedings”, defined broadly to include arbitrators, ad hoc committee…

Due process, Set aside an arbitral award, Singapore, Virtual hearings

(Withers KhattarWong LLP)/ /Leave a comment

Introduction The use of virtual hearings is not new in international arbitration. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated, and accelerated, a shift from in-person hearings to virtual hearings. With travel bans in place and no visibility of when countries will open their borders again, in-person hearings will likely be the exception rather than the norm…

Adverse Inference, China, Document Production, Evidence, Legislation

, (Shanghai International Arbitration Center)/ /Leave a comment
Shanghai International Arbitration Center (SHIAC)

The practice of adverse document production or disclosure is largely foreign in civil law jurisdictions like mainland China. Despite resistance, the growth of judicial practice on document production prompted the Supreme People’s Court of China (“SPC”) to make the new Rules of Evidence on Civil Procedure (“Rules of Evidence”) on December 25, 2019, effective as…

Arbitration institution, Consolidation, Institutional Arbitration, Virtual hearings

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“Success in life is not for those who run fast, but for those, who keep running and are always on the move.” Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity   This expression may work in both, personal and professional situations. Indeed, there seems to exist a consensus that “arbitration has become a big legal business” and a…

Anti-arbitration Injunction, Court Proceedings, Draft Award, judicial review, Review on the merits

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Background In a recent blog post, Luis Capiel and Alicia Larrazabal of Herbert Smith Freehills commented on the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice’s decision to stay institutional arbitration proceedings initiated by Modexel Consultores e Servicios S.A. (MODEXEL) against Alimentos Polar Comercial C.A. (POLAR) under the Business Center for Conciliation and Arbitration (CEDCA) arbitration rules. In…

Enforcement, Foreign arbitral awards, Kingdom of eSwatini

(Taylor Wessing)/ /Leave a comment
YIAG

The answer to the question of how to recognize and enforce foreign arbitral awards in currently at least 164 jurisdictions worldwide usually starts with a reference to the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention). Not so in the Kingdom of eSwatini, one of the few…

ICSID, Investment protection, Mediation

(Arbitrator Intelligence) and (White & Case)/ /Leave a comment

Co-organised by YSIAC’s Ms Kirsten Teo and Young ICSID’s Ms Celeste Salinas Quero, this YSIAC-Young ICSID webinar on the impact of the Singapore Convention on Mediation (“Convention”) on international investment disputes brought together five visionary speakers across four time-zones and attracted hundreds of attendees from 50 countries worldwide. With Mr Diogo Pereira (Partner, De Almeida…

Arbitration, Arbitration Proceedings, Human Rights, ICSID Amendments, International arbitration, Investment Arbitration, Reform, Working Group III

(Georgetown Law) and (Columbia Law School)/ /Leave a comment

Reforms Are Afoot Calls for investor-State dispute settlement (“ISDS”) reform have catalyzed efforts to evolve the regime. Concurrently, the ISDS system continues to wrestle with tensions between an investment regime primarily oriented towards protecting investor rights, and the human rights normative architecture for protection of individual rights and associated State obligations for protection of such rights. ISDS…

Due process, judicial review, Malaysia, Singapore

, (Debevoise & Plimpton)/ /Leave a comment

Due process is an essential aspect of international arbitration or, indeed, any contentious proceeding. Due process rules act as a shield for parties against unfairness. They ensure that the exercise of a tribunal’s jurisdiction is constrained, such that all parties are given a reasonable opportunity to present their cases. There has been a notable increase…