In three similar decisions of 17 March 2015[1] the Austrian Supreme Court (“OGH”) clarified how insolvency proceedings may affect an already pending arbitration. In a nutshell, the OGH held that Section 7 Bankruptcy Act, which provides that all pending proceedings in which the debtor is the claimant or the respondent are (automatically) stayed upon the commencement of bankruptcy proceedings, also applies to arbitral proceedings. Additionally, the OGH gave guidance on the question when arbitral proceedings…
In its decision dated November 9, 2015, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court ruled on whether or not to…
In its decision dated 12 January 2015 (Court of Appeal Munich, file no. 34 Sch 17/13, http://openjur.de/u/755584.html), the…
“Would you, dear arbitrator candidate, be prepared to meet with my client? They really want to know beforehand the person who will ultimately decide about the future of their company.” If a party’s counsel asks the potential arbitrator such a question at the end of a first telephone call, many will intuitively decline the request with a quick “No, that is impossible!”. Too overwhelming is the strict ban of ex-parte communications in international arbitration. But…
Most major international arbitration rules require that an award rendered by a tribunal include the reasons upon which…
Since its establishment in 2004, the Swiss Chambers’ Arbitration Institution and the Arbitration Court have handled 836 arbitration cases.…
On July 28, 2015, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court had to decide a rather unusual case concerning the alleged violation of the right to be heard and arbitrary decision (decision 2C_1073/2014 of July 28, 2015). At the annual cow fights in the canton of Valais, Switzerland, the cow “Gentiane” competed against the cow “Shakira” in the final fight. According to the rules, the cow which backs down from the fight first loses. When Gentiane wanted to…
In a decision rendered on July 29, 2015, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court had to consider the use…
A referral to the “International Chamber of Commerce, Zürich, Switzerland and subsidiary by the laws of Germany” is…
Nowadays high value M&A transactions and project structures can be very complex, in particular involving a number of parties based in different jurisdictions who between them enter into a variety of related contracts. To save time and money, parties can seek to resolve all the issues in dispute in the same set of legal proceedings, rather than in many different, but related, proceedings. This has traditionally been done relatively easily in court proceedings. However it…