Law Commons^™

Convergence And Divergence: Comparative Analysis Of Procedural Rule Changes Of The Hong Kong And Singapore International Arbitration Centers Within The Framework Of Neo-Institutional Theory, Phillip Hoang Tran

Dissertations

International commercial arbitration (ICA) plays an essential role in resolving disputes between companies engaged in complex, cross-border business transactions. It offers an efficient, neutral, and enforceable mechanism for resolving disputes across different legal and cultural backgrounds. ICA is generally conducted at international arbitration centers located throughout the world. According to the extant literature, there is convergence of procedural rules among these centers. Sabharwal and Zaman (2014), for example, claim increasing convergence of procedural rules among all the major arbitration centers. Similarly, Sharma (2021) proposes that this convergence helps build the international arbitration system. However, there is a near absence of …

Compelling Evidence In International Commercial Arbitration After The Section 1782 Shutdown: Faa Section 7 As An Alternative Approach, Caroline Bailey

Georgia Law Review

The United States Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in the 2022 case ZF Automotive US, Inc. v. Luxshare, Ltd. resolved the long-disputed circuit split regarding the application of Section 1782 of Title 28 of the U.S. Code to international arbitrations. The Court’s ruling that the term “foreign or international tribunal” under Section 1782 includes only governmental or intergovernmental adjudicative bodies ended the use of Section 1782 to compel evidence located in the United States in private adjudicative bodies such as international commercial arbitrations. The Section 1782 shutdown has required arbitrators and parties to international commercial arbitrations to seek alternative legal mechanisms …

Arbitrating Corruption, Rachel Brewster

Faculty Scholarship

One of the most controversial issues in international investment law is how arbitral panels should deal with investments tainted by corruption at their inception. The current practice of investment arbitrators is to refuse to hear investors’ claims when bribery allegations are substantiated. A recent wave of scholarship has attacked this “corruption defense,” arguing that the practice unfairly harms investors and encourages governments to maintain corrupt practices. This Essay responds to that scholarship, arguing that the current approach is the best policy choice on balance. The Essay analyzes three core policy questions at the heart of the debate: Would eliminating the …

(Not) Right On Time: Interpretation Of "Pertinent Time" For Bancec Alter Ego Analysis And Its Effect On Attaching Foreign Sovereign Assets, James Hardman

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Uncitral Model Law At The Us State Level, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

The arbitration law of the United States remains, regrettably, the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), enacted in 1925 and essentially unchanged. Despite its age, it has been significantly amended only once, in order to transpose into law the New York and Panama Conventions. Otherwise, it reads just as it did when enacted almost a century ago. Given its age and the remarkable developments in the law of arbitration over past decades, the FAA unsurprisingly fails to address a very large number of issues that have arisen in arbitral proceedings and judicial decisions on arbitration in the many intervening years. Even the …

Rules Of Regularity: An Empirical Quest For Commercial Certainty In Arbitration, Cornelis J.W. Baaij

William & Mary Business Law Review

The U.S. Supreme Court justifies the broad enforceability of arbitration agreements with the notion that arbitration expands parties' autonomy to contract for an efficient alternative to court proceedings. Unfortunately, the current practice of both domestic and cross-border commercial arbitration does not fully live up to these expectations. It is crucial to both autonomy and efficiency theories of contract law that adjudicatory decision-making is predictable so parties can tailor their contracts accordingly. However, commercial arbitration's prevailing culture of confidentiality and lack of stare decisis diminishes commercial certainty. To bring the reality of commercial arbitration closer to the Supreme Court's reasoning, this …

International Treaty As A Basis For The Recognition And Enforcement Of Foreign Interim Measures, Mansurov Artem

ProAcademy

The article examines in detail an international treaty as a basis for the recognition and enforcement of foreign interim measures, in addition, the author came to the conclusion that the Economic Procedural Legislation of Uzbekistan in chapter 33 of the EPC RU regulates proceedings in cases of recognition and enforcement of decisions of foreign courts and arbitrations, however, such foreign judicial acts as interim measures in any form are not regulated. In addition, the recently adopted legislation on international commercial arbitration - LRU 674 of February 16, 2021, despite the fact that its norms contain the regulation of interim measures …

Omar Effendi Vs. Union Fenosa: Corruption As A Transnational Public Policy Consideration, Ahmed Badr Eldin

Theses and Dissertations

At the beginning of 2011, Egypt witnessed radical political developments that led to the emergence of a pressing tendency to adjudicate the collapsed regime’s policies and practices. Shortly thereafter, the Egyptian State Council issued a number of judicial decisions that confirmed that the sale of the privatized governmental enterprises had been tainted by corruption. Crucially, the Court maintained that flagrant breach of law, regulations, and administrative orders that encompassed these transactions created serious suspicions about corruption committed by public officials and investors. It concluded that the existence of corruption, as a transnational public policy consideration, had deprived foreign investors of …

Third Party Funding Of Investment Arbitration, Maya Steinitz

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay discusses Third-Party Funding in Investment Arbitration. It describes the rise of third-party funding of investment arbitration; the debate over the definition of litigation/arbitration finance; the forms arbitration finance takes; the normative debate in favor and against third-party funding of investment arbitration; the effects of arbitration funding on the arbitral process; developments in national, international, and soft law governing investment arbitration funding; and the likely effects of third-party funding on the international bar.

Sidra International Dispute Resolution Survey: 2020 Final Report, Nadja Alexander, Vakhtangi Giorgadze, Allison Goh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The International Dispute Resolution Survey: 2020 Final Report presents the findings of the Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy’s inaugural examination into the preferences, experiences, practices and perspectives of international dispute resolution users around the globe. The survey examined three major international dispute resolution mechanisms: international commercial arbitration, international commercial mediation, international commercial litigation, as well as hybrid dispute resolution mechanisms such as mediation-arbitration and arbitration-mediation. The survey also inquired into the use of technology in international dispute resolution, such as predictive analytical tools and negotiation support systems, and asked the users to express whether they were satisfied with the use …

Authorization Of Discovery In International Commercial Arbitration: Demystifying The Sixth Circuit’S Statutory Construction Of 28 U.S.C. § 1782(A), Jason Arendt

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Long Live The Golden Summer: Arbitration, Courts, & Colas, L. Yves Fortier

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Hardy Case Makes Bad Law, Victoria Sahani

Faculty Scholarship

This Article is the first ever to analyze a direct clash between the inherent power of US courts regarding the enforcement ofjudgments and the obligations of the United States as one of the 163 member countries of the 1965 Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States, commonly known as the "ICSID Convention. " The ICSID Convention includes a self-enforcement mechanism whereby the courts of the member countries are obligated to enforce the pecuniary obligations in multimillion (and sometimes over one billion) dollar ICSID arbitration awards as though they were court judgments of the …

Wto Dispute Settlement: Can We Go Back Again?, Rachel Brewster

Faculty Scholarship

The world's twenty-year experiment with a rule-based international trading order is most likely ending. Trade wars are raging again for the first time in two decades as World Trade Organization (WTO) members unilaterally impose and counterimpose sanctions. In Geneva, the WTO Appellate Body, whose existence is essential to the functioning of the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU), is on a trajectory to shut down in December 2020. For all the fireworks, however, many commentators retain an optimism that the recent events will be a passing phase and that the world will return to a more law-oriented trading system after the …

The New York Convention: A Self-Executing Treaty, Gary B. Born

Michigan Journal of International Law

The thesis of this Article is that uncertainty regarding the Convention’s status as a self-executing treaty of the United States is unwarranted and unfortunate. Instead, both the Convention’s provisions for recognition and enforcement of arbitration agreements (in Article II) and of arbitral awards (in Articles III, IV, V, and VI) should be regarded as self-executing and directly applicable in U.S. (and other national) courts. As discussed in detail below, this is because Article II establishes mandatory, complete, and comprehensive substantive rules, directed specifically to national courts, for the recognition and enforcement of international arbitration agreements. Likewise, the history and purposes …

International Arbitration - Between Myth And Reality: The 9th John E.C. Brierly Memorial Lecture, Susan Franck

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The first woman to deliver the John E.C. Brierly Memorial Lecture in November 2016, Susan Franck explores common but flawed accounts of international arbitration based on anecdotes and myths while encouraging the audience to pay more attention to scientific facts. While acknowledging the challenges of living in a “post-factual” society, she argues that international arbitration, whether commercial or investment-based, is caught within a larger geo-political maelstrom which includes a backlash against globalization, the popularization of populism, and a turn toward nationalism. Rather than permitting decisions to be affected by an emotive torrent of intuitive forces that facilitate decisions based upon …

China's Belt And Road Development And A New International Commercial Arbitration Initiative In Asia, Weixia Gu

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The policy centerpiece of President Xi Jinping's foreign strategy, China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), ambitiously aspires towards expanding regional markets and facilitating regional cooperation. In context of a rising volume of cross-border transactions generated by the BRI, a robust legal framework on dispute resolution is required to forge investor confidence and enable BRI's integral goal of economic integration. In light of the substantial levels of harmonization among arbitration laws, arbitration is argued to constitute a primary vehicle of international commercial dispute resolution in an economically integrated Asia under the BRI. It is against this backdrop that the Article argues …

Cross-Border Insolvencies: To “Universalize” Or To Arbitrate?, Young Hye (Martina) Chun

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This note makes a cost-benefit analysis of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code Chapter 15 and International Commercial Arbitration in the context of cross-border bankruptcy proceedings. Part I sets the stage by providing two opposing theoretical approaches to cross-border insolvencies: territorialism and universalism. Part II introduces the UNCITRAL’s Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency, which is incorporated into the U.S. Bankruptcy Code Chapter 15. It presents how the Model Law has attempted to compensate for the lack of a global court by incorporating universalism. Part III demonstrates that while Chapter 15 sounds good in theory, it fails to address the very issue it …

The Need For Implementation Of A Consolidation Provision In Institutional Arbitration Rules, Ioannis Giakoumelos

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article deals with the question whether arbitration institutions should introduce a consolidation provision in their respective rules, and if so, under what conditions consolidation should be ordered. It stresses the general advantages and potential disadvantages which consolidation may have. It further investigates whether the parties’ interests regarding consolidation are sufficiently respected in the absence of an express consolidation rule. In this regard, it argues that interpretation of arbitration agreements can have a detrimental outcome, and therefore, the introduction of a consolidation provision in institutional rules is recommended. The article goes on to compare various consolidation provisions of different arbitration …

Local Liability In International Economic Law, Timothy Meyer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Korea's Emerging Importance In The Practice Of International Commercial Arbitration, Jack J. Coe, E Y. Park, Grant Kim, Kevin Kim

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Arbitrator Behaviour In Asymmetrical Adjudication (Part Two): An Examination Of Hypotheses Of Bias In Investment Treaty Arbitration, Gus Van Harten

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article reports on a study of potential systemic bias in the resolution of ambiguous legal issues by investment treaty arbitrators. It outlines tentative but significant findings that the arbitrators in general tended to favour (1) foreign investors over states overall, (2) foreign investors from major Western capital-exporting states over other foreign investors, and, albeit based on more limited data, (3) the United States as a respondent state over other respondent states. The evidence is derived from an extensive content analysis of the arbitrators’ resolution of fourteen legal issues that are contested among arbitrators or in secondary literature. The findings …

Laying Down The "Brics": Enhancing The Portability Of Awards In International Commercial Arbitration, Benjamin C. Mccarty

Benjamin C McCarty

The drafters of the 1958 New York Convention intended Article V(2)(b) to be interpreted narrowly, and while most pro-arbitration national courts do maintain narrowly defined areas of public policy that are sufficient for refusal of the recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitral award, this is not always the case. Developing states and jurisdictions that maintain corrupt or inefficient judicial systems have shown a greater willingness to invoke the public policy exception for a broader, amorphous variety of reasons. This phenomenon has created a sense of unpredictability among international investors, arbitrators, and business executives as to the amount of deference …

Arbitrator Behaviour In Asymmetrical Adjudication: An Empirical Study Of Investment Treaty Arbitration, Gus Van Harten

Gus Van Harten

The study examines arbitrator behaviour in the unique context of investment treaty arbitration. It employs the method of content analysis to test hypotheses of systemic bias in the resolution of jurisdictional issues in investment treaty law. Unlike earlier studies, the study examines trends in legal interpretation instead of case outcomes and finds statistically significant evidence that arbitrators favour: (1) the position of claimants over respondent states and (2) the position of claimants from major Western capital-exporting states over claimants from other states. There is a range of possible explanations for the results and further inferences are required to connect the …

Reasoned Awards In International Commercial Arbitration: Embracing And Exceeding The Common Law-Civil Law Dichotomy, S. I. Strong

Michigan Journal of International Law

Unlike many types of domestic arbitration where unreasoned awards (often called “standard awards”) are the norm, international commercial arbitration routinely requires arbitrators to produce fully reasoned awards. However, very little information exists as to what constitutes a reasoned award in the international commercial context or how to write such an award. This lacuna is extremely problematic given the ever-increasing number of international commercial arbitrations that arise every year and the significant individual and societal costs that can result from a badly written award. Although this Article is aimed primarily at specialists in international commercial arbitration, the material is also useful …

Perceptions And Reality: The Enforcement Of Foreign Arbitral Awards In China, Julian Ku, Roger Alford, Bei Xiao

Julian Ku

This Article represents the most recent comprehensive effort to assess China’s record in the enforcement of arbitration awards issued outside of China. This Article fills two gaps in academic literature on China’s treatment of foreign arbitral awards. First, unlike studies that rely mainly on anecdotal evidence, this study reviews and analyzes the reasoning of leading Chinese judicial opinions interpreting and applying China’s obligations under the New York Convention. Second, unlike prior empirical studies of Chinese courts’ enforcement rates, this study also surveys global arbitration practitioners to find out information about their experiences enforcing foreign arbitral awards in China. The Article …

Kompetenz-Kompetenz: Varying Approaches And A Proposal For A Limited Form Of Negative Kompetenz-Kompetenz, Ashley Cook

Pepperdine Law Review

This paper analyzes differing views and approaches to kompetenz-kompetenz and proposes a workable framework of kompetenz-kompetenz for the future. Part II provides an overview of the general principle of kompetenz-kompetenz, discussing the views of some of the leading international commercial arbitration scholars on kompetenz-kompetenz. Part III analyzes the approaches taken by the United States and the United Kingdom and uses them as helpful illustrations of kompetenz-kompetenz in practice. Part IV notes the shortcomings of the aforementioned approaches and proposes a limited form of negative kompetenz-kompetenz as the solution.

Reasoned Awards In International Commercial Arbitration: Embracing And Exceeding The Common Law-Civil Law Dichotomy, S. I. Strong

Faculty Articles

The primary focus of this Article is to analyze various process-oriented and structural issues relating to reasoned awards in international commercial arbitration so as to improve the practical and theoretical understanding of international awards. That discussion, which is found in Section IV, considers various factors from both the common law and civil law perspectives so as to take into account the blended nature of international commercial arbitration.

Of course, to be fully comprehensible, the detailed analysis in Section IV must first be put into context. Therefore, Section II describes the difficulties associated with defining a reasoned award in international commercial …

American And Other National Variations On The Theme Of International Commercial Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Who Decides The Arbitrators' Jurisdiction? Separability And Competence-Competence In Transnational Perspective, John J. Barceló Iii

John J. Barceló III

No abstract provided.