In a decision dated September 7, 2018 (case no. 5A_942/2017, selected for publication), the Swiss Federal Supreme Court issued a landmark decision on the enforcement of arbitral awards against state-owned assets located in Switzerland. The case revolved around a UNCITRAL award issued by an arbitral tribunal with its seat in Paris against a central Asian state. Based on this award, enforcement proceedings were initiated against real estate owned by the central Asian state in Switzerland. The…
The Commercial Court has upheld a challenge under section 67 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (“AA 1996”) to…
Recent Development On December 5, 2017, the Fédération Internationale des Ingénieurs-Conseils (FIDIC) launched the second edition of the…
Recent development The Turkish Public Procurement Authority recently amended the standard contracts annexed to the Regulations on the Implementation of Public Procurements effective as of 19 January 2018. What do the amendments say? Instead of referring to Turkish courts, public administrations may choose arbitration for disputes arising out of the execution of a procurement agreement. The Istanbul Arbitration Centre (ISTAC) will conduct domestic arbitrations; for international arbitrations, public administrations can choose between ad hoc arbitration…
A couple of months ago a decision by the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) shocked the arbitration community:…
In its decision 4A_260/2017 rendered on 20 February 2018, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court declined to set aside…
The case of Agile Holdings Corp v Essar Shipping Ltd[1] clarifies the circumstances in which the court can revisit the decision to grant leave to appeal an award on a point of law under section 69 of the UK Arbitration Act 1996 (“AA”) at the merits stage. The law Section 69 of the UK provides narrow grounds on which a party can appeal an award on a point of law. Before an appeal can be…
In April 2018, the Court of Appeal issued its decision in Halliburton Company v (1) Chubb Bermuda Insurance…
The rejection of SCM Financial Overseas Ltd’s (“SCM”) challenge to an US$ 860 million award in favour of…
On 16 May 2018, Global Arbitration Review published a report on the Netherlands newly published draft model BIT. The news heading was “Radical proposals in draft Netherlands Model BIT”. The radical proposal was the abandonment of the party-appointment arbitrator system. However, one must not mistake radical with novel because the debate on the elimination of party-appointed arbitrators is at least eight years old. The heat of the debate started in 2010, when Jan Paulson launched…