The United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) has experienced decades of economic growth and has emerged as a leading regional commercial hub, attracting large and numerous cross-border transactions. This has lead investors and parties into contracts in the UAE to commonly elect a foreign law, in particular English law, to govern the contractual relationship and to opt for a foreign jurisdiction or for arbitration as an alternative to litigation. Looking at the legal framework of the UAE,…
Lord Thomas: Rebalancing the relationship between the courts and arbitration Lord Thomas’s Bailii Lecture on 9 March 2016…
Australian courts will not lightly set aside arbitral awards, including on public policy grounds. The recent case of…
In a recent Iranian gas contract dispute, the High Court of England and Wales rejected an attempt to set aside an arbitration award on the grounds of alleged corruption and bribery.[i] This judgment is a helpful reminder of how English courts deal with attempts to have awards set aside on this basis. However, the state of the relevant underlying English common law in this area is such that it should be closely watched.Yet another oil…
In a recent PRC case (the “Taizhou Court Case”), the Taizhou Intermediate People’s Court (“Court”) refused enforcement of…
Angola is to become the 157th signatory state to the New York Convention, paving the way for the…
In a recent decision, the Higher Regional Court of Munich (Oberlandesgericht München; hereinafter: “Court”) ruled that an arbitrator cannot be challenged for lack of impartiality because he failed to use language emphasizing the preliminary nature of a pre-hearing indicative order. (Higher Regional Court of Munich, Decision of 24 November 2015 (34 SchH 5/15), NJW 2016, 881 = SchiedsVZ 2015, 309.) The Facts In 2014, Claimant brought a payment claim against Respondent arising out of the…
In Albaniabeg Ambient Sh.p.k. v. Enel S.p.A. and Enelpower S.p.A., No. 15 Civ. 3283 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 11, 2016),…
On 19 January 2016, the English High Court in Pencil Hill Ltd v US Citta Di Palermo SpA…
Are offers to arbitrate in BITs (Bilateral Investment Treaties) between EU member states compatible with the laws of the European Union? On 3 March 2016, the German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof or short: BGH) submitted this question to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for preliminary ruling. The CJEU’s decision in this matter could have wide ranging implications for EU investors. Background to the Case The case originates from an investment arbitration…