Law Commons^™

Why The Multilateral Investment Court Is A Bad Idea For Africa, Akinwumi Ogunranti

Dalhousie Law Journal

The UNCITRAL Working Group III (WG III) is discussing procedural reforms in the investor state dispute settlement system (ISDS). The ISDS framework is criticized on various grounds, including arbitrator bias, lack of transparency, and inconsistent arbitral decisions. One of the recent reform proposals before the WG III is the possibility of a multilateral investment court (MIC). This proposal is championed by European Union states and supported by Canada. The proposal recommends replacing ISDS’ Ad hoc investment tribunals with an established and permanent court where states appoint judges. This paper examines the MIC reform option and argues that replacing the ISDS …

Uncitral Working Group Iii: Contribution On The ‘Right To Regulate’ Provision, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment, International Institute For Environment And Development, South Centre

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

"UNCITRAL Working Group III: Contribution on the ‘Right to Regulate’ Provision" is a joint submission to the Secretariat's request for comments on the procedural and cross-cutting issues. The commentary focuses on the states' right-to-regulate provision, proposed in the Draft provisions on procedural and cross-cutting issues, and proposes additional policy options aimed at preserving the states' sovereign right (and duty) to regulate.

Managing Multiplicity: Consolidating Parallel Arbitration Proceedings For Renewal Energy Disputes, Francesca Pinto

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Arbitration Rules, considered the most widely used set of ad hoc rules in international arbitration, do not contain any provisions on consolidating parallel proceedings. Considering the complex, multiparty, and multiple-contract nature of renewable energy investment and development, the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules should implement consolidation provisions that explicitly address consolidation for related arbitration proceedings and—in some circumstances—enforce consolidation regardless of whether all parties consent. Part II of this article provides an overview of transactions related to the investment, development, and operation of renewable energy projects. Part III identifies the risks of parallel …

Provisional Measures In Aid Of Arbitration, Ronald A. Brand

Articles

The success of the New York Convention has made arbitration a preferred means of dispute resolution for international commercial transactions. Success in arbitration often depends on the extent to which a party may secure assets, evidence, or the status quo between parties prior to the completion of the arbitration process. This makes the availability of provisional measures granted by either arbitral tribunals or by courts fundamental to the arbitration. In this Article, I consider the existing legal framework for provisional measures in aid of arbitration, with particular attention to the sources of the rules providing for such measures. Those sources …

Standing At Crossroads: The Trajectory Of Iias And Isds And Their Projection In The Post-Pandemic Global Economy, Yasharth Misra

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Secured Transactions Law Reform In Japan: Japan Business Credit Project Assessment Of Interviews And Tentative Policy Proposals, Megumi Hara, Kumiko Koens, Charles W. Mooney Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

This article summarizes key findings from the Japan Business Credit Project (JBCP), which involved more than 30 semi-structured interviews conducted in Japan from 2016 through 2018. It was inspired by important and previously unexplored questions concerning secured financing of movables (business equipment and inventory) and claims (receivables)—“asset-based lending” or “ABL.” Why is the use of ABL in Japan so limited? What are the principal obstacles and disincentives to the use of ABL in Japan? The interviews were primarily with staff of banks, but also included those of government officials and regulators, academics, and law practitioners. The article proposes reforms of …

The Uncitral Model Law On Public Procurement: Potential Next Steps, Christopher R. Yukins, Caroline Nicholas

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The current version of the Model Law on Public Procurement was approved by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) in 2011, after a drafting process which spanned nearly a decade. This version of the Model Law reflects best practices which were emerging in procurement systems across the world during the first decade of this century. There have been calls for an update of the Model Law, and this draft chapter, after reviewing the history of the Model Law and the reforms which led to the current version, discusses various reforms which might be made to the text …

The Faux Pas Of Automatic Stay Under The Indian Arbitration Act, 1996 - The Hcc Dictum, Two-Cherry Doctrine, And Beyond, Sai Ramani Garimella, Gautam Mohanty

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

In the matter of Hindustan Construction. Co. v. Union of India, the Honorable Supreme Court of India (“SCI”) was presented with an opportunity to adjudicate upon a petition challenging the constitutional validity of Section 87 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act of 1996 (“1996 Act”) as inserted by Section 13 of the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act of 2019 (“2019 Act"). The legislative insertion stated that amendments made to the 1996 Act by the Arbitration and Conciliation Act of 2015 (“2015 Act”) would not apply to court proceedings arising out of, or in relation to, arbitral proceedings initiated before the …

Contemporary Legal Issues Of Contract Formation Through Online System, Ayman Khaled Masadeh, Mohammad Bashayreh

UAEU Law Journal

Electronic commerce has put forth new challenges to the efforts endeavoring to unify international trade law. Most international trade conventions are designed to apply to traditional means of communication as they were drafted before the recent informational revolution. Because, in some countries, conventions supersede domestic laws, adopting the United Nations Model Law on Electronic Commerce might not completely harmonize national laws. Hence, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a new Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts (hereinafter the Convention) prepared by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Adopted on 23 November 2005, the …

Transparency In Public Procurement Rules And Processes In The State Of Qatar (A Comparative Study With The Uncitral Procurement Model Law), Hasan Abdul-Raheem Al-Sayyid

UAEU Law Journal

Procurement Model Law, which was adopted by the United Nations Committee on InternationalTrade Law (UNCITRAL). The study aims to draw a comparison between the UNCITRAL Procurement Model Law and the Qatari Public Procurement Law (Tenders Law). The study raises a number of pertinent questions and issues such as the question of whether the Qatarilawgives sufficient consideration to the transparency principles in procurement processes or not. Does the Qatarilawmeet the standards of transparency adopted by the UNCITRAL Model Law? Finally, does the Qatari Law include well-built provisions that prevent corruption, protect public assets and promote confidence in procurement processes?

To answer …

 The Effects Of Fraud By The Beneficiary Of The Letter Of Guaranty On The Obligation Of The Bank According To Unicitral 1995; A Comparative Study

UAEU Law Journal

The research focuses on the effect of fraud of the beneficiary of the international letters of guarantee on the international commitment of the bank through UNICITRAL rules for 1995. Article 19 of UNCITRAL illustrates the cases where the guarantor is able to waive the payment to the beneficiary. UNICITRAL rules grant the bank the power to refuse payment when the claim of the client is supported by fake documents and so it keeps the balance between the different interests. UNICITRAL rules grant the bank the discretionary authority of the payment. The bank's role to maintain the confidence in the letter …

Comments To The Draft Working Group Iii Workplan, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment, International Institute For Environment And Development, International Institute For Sustainable Development

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is currently working on how to reform international investment treaties, focusing in particular on those treaties’ provisions enabling investors to sue governments in international arbitration. As an observer organization in this process, CCSI has emphasized that in the context of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) reform, it is important to first consider what it is that investment treaties aim to achieve, and only then to consider what form(s) of dispute settlement will best advance those objectives. This means not only looking at reform of the existing ISDS mechanism, but also alternatives to …

Legal Aspects Of Recognition By Virtue Of Electronic Arbitration In The 1958 New York Convention, Dr. Ziad Khalifa Al-Anzi, Abdullah Hamid Algoiri

UAEU Law Journal

The resolution instruments of e-commerce disputes and the e-arbitration have emerged and developed as the result of spreading of e-commerce. International conventions governing the arbitration have not kept pace with these developments. The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, also known as the "1958 New York Arbitration Convention", is the most important of these conventions. This convention deals with many legal problems of the use of electronic means of arbitration, including the requirement of traditional writing of the arbitration agreement, submitting of the original agreement certified by the competent authorities and the exchange of notifications and …

Interpretation Of Article V Of The New York Convention In The Eleventh Circuit: Industrial Risk Insurers, Juan C. Garcia, Ivan Bracho Gonzalez

University of Miami Law Review

The widespread use and growing preference for international arbitration over cross-border litigation is primarily due to the existence of a clear and straightforward regime for the enforcement of arbitration agreements and awards. Even though this was not always the case, through the appearance of the New York Convention and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (“UNCITRAL”) Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, the treatment and acceptance of international arbitration in different legal regimes has undergone a harmonization process which has served to develop consistency. That harmonization process, however, has not been completed. Several jurisdictions, even within their own …

Lost In Transplantation: Modern Principles Of Secured Transactions Law As Legal Transplants, Charles W. Mooney Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

This manuscript will appear as a chapter in a forthcoming edited volume published by Hart Publishing, Secured Transactions Law in Asia: Principles, Perspectives and Reform (Louise Gullifer & Dora Neo eds., forthcoming 2020). It focuses on a set of principles (Modern Principles) that secured transactions law for personal property should follow. These Modern Principles are based on UCC Article 9 and its many progeny, including the UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions. The chapter situates the Modern principles in the context of the transplantation of law from one legal system to another. It draws in particular on Alan Watson’s pathbreaking …

Investor-State Arbitration: Economic And Empirical Perspectives, Michael Faure, Wanli Ma

Michigan Journal of International Law

The investor-state arbitration system (“ISA”) was originally modelled on traditional commercial arbitration and was expected to deliver fast, good, and cheap decisions, especially in comparison to domestic court systems. Yet the ISA system has increasingly been criticized, especially by developing countries. Developing countries claim that the system is not cheap, that decision-making increasingly takes a long time, and that arbitrators are biased in favor of investors (often coming from developed countries in the global North) and against states from the developing South. Several developing states have even withdrawn from the ICSID Convention, which governs the settlement of disputes between investors …

Inconsistency's Many Forms In Investor-State Dispute Settlement And Implications For Reform, Lise Johnson, Lisa E. Sachs

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Attracting investment in agriculture has been a key policy goal of governments in the global south. Development partners have supported these policies. But what do governments hope to achieve by attracting investment in the agricultural sector? Why are companies interested in investing? What is in it for local communities? And what is the role of lawyers? This primer provides an introduction to some of the key issues that arise in the negotiation of contracts linked to investments in agriculture, and practical guidance for how to approach common issues. Section 1 of this primer outlines the typical goals of three important …

The Dialogic Aspect Of Soft Law In International Insolvency: Discord, Digression, And Development, John A. E. Pottow

Law & Economics Working Papers

Soft law is on the ascent in international insolvency, seeming now to occupy a preferred status over boring old conventions. An arguably constitutive aspect of soft law, which some contend provides a normative justification for international law generally, is its "dialogic" nature, by which I mean its intentional exposure to recursive norm contestation and iterative development: soft law starts a dialogue. The product of that dialogue, on a teleological view, may well be hard law. In the international insolvency realm, that pathway is through (soft) model domestic legislation that aspires toward enactment as municipal law. The happy story is that …

Supporting Party Autonomy In The Enforcement Of Cross-Border Mediated Settlement Agreements: A Brave New World Or Unchartered Territory?, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The last decade has seen a palpable rise of domestic and international instruments tofacilitate the enforcement of cross-border mediated settlement agreements. The EU MediationDirective required member states to provide for enforcement of such agreements. Common lawjurisdictions including Singapore, Ireland and Ontario have enacted legislation to allowmediated settlement agreements to be recorded as court judgments. Other countries haveprovided for such agreements to be akin to arbitral awards for enforcement purposes. Mostrecently, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) has agreedto create multilateral convention and to amend the Model Law on International CommercialConciliation to facilitate cross-border enforcement of commercial disputes …

The Singapore Convention On Mediation: A Framework For The Cross-Border Recognition And Enforcement Of Mediated Settlements, Timothy Schnabel

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article attempts to provide a definitive overview of the text, structure, history, and purpose of the Singapore Convention on Mediation (also known as the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation), a new multilateral treaty developed by the U.N. Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). The Convention, scheduled to open for signature in August 2019, provides a uniform, efficient framework for the recognition and enforcement of mediated settlement agreements that resolve international, commercial disputes — akin to the framework that the 1958 New York Convention provides for arbitral awards. Unlike the other primary international organizations that …

Ccsi Submits Written Views To Us Department Of State Regarding Uncitral’S Working Group Iii, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In connection with the US Department of State’s Annual Advisory Committee on Private International law meeting in May 2019, CCSI submitted written views regarding UNCITRAL’s Working Group III on ISDS reform. CCSI’s comments highlighted specific areas of CCSI’s research as it relates to the US Government and its work within the Working Group. Specifically, US investment treaty negotiating objectives specify that covered foreign investors in the United States should not be accorded greater substantive rights than domestic investors. CCSI highlights the ways in which greater procedural rights afforded under investment treaties to foreign investors in practice result in greater substantive …

The Singapore Convention On Mediation - A Brighter Future For Asian Dispute Resolution, Eunice Chua

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

On 26 June 2018, the UnitedNations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) approved, largelywithout modification, the final drafts of the Convention on International SettlementAgreements Resulting from Mediation (the Singapore Convention) and amendmentsto the Model Law on International Commercial Mediation prepared by WorkingGroup II. These instruments aim to promote the enforceability of internationalcommercial settlement agreements reached through mediation in the same way thatthe New York Convention facilitates the recognition and enforcement ofinternational arbitration awards. This paper provides a critical analysis of theSingapore Convention and some commentary from an Asian perspective.

The Singapore Convention On Mediation - A Brighter Future For Asian Dispute Resolution, Eunice Chua

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

On 26 June 2018, the UnitedNations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) approved, largelywithout modification, the final drafts of the Convention on International SettlementAgreements Resulting from Mediation (the Singapore Convention) and amendmentsto the Model Law on International Commercial Mediation prepared by WorkingGroup II. These instruments aim to promote the enforceability of internationalcommercial settlement agreements reached through mediation in the same way thatthe New York Convention facilitates the recognition and enforcement ofinternational arbitration awards. This paper provides a critical analysis of theSingapore Convention and some commentary from an Asian perspective.

Online Dispute Resolution, Ronald A. Brand

Articles

This chapter was prepared from a presentation given by the author at the 2019 Summer School in Transnational Commercial Law & Technology, jointly sponsored by the University of Verona School of Law and the Center for International Legal Education (CILE) of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. In the paper, I review online dispute resolution (ODR) by considering the following five questions, which I believe help to develop a better understanding of both the concept and the legal framework surrounding it:

A. What is ODR?

B. Who does ODR?

C. What is the legal framework for ODR?

D. What …

Introduction: Singapore Convention Reference Book, Harold Abramson

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The New Singapore Mediation Convention: The Process And Key Choices, Harold Abramson

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Global Lawmakers: International Organizations In The Crafting Of World Markets By Susan Block-Lieb And Terence C. Halliday, Melissa J. Durkee

Scholarly Works

Susan Block-Lieb and Terence Halliday gradually build up an empirically grounded, meticulously realized argument that individual lawmakers matter. When one allows facts to inform theory rather than the other way around, the authors show, what becomes clear is that individual lawmakers are not just governmental delegates, but a whole variety of professionals, industry association representatives, and others with some stake in the lawmaking process. These actors work not just through formal processes, but also through an array of informal ones. Most importantly, their presence matters to the content of the legal norms that take hold around the world. The book …

The Ammanati Affair: Seven Centuries Old, And Not Feeling The Age, Eugenio Vaccari

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The enactments of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency and the European Regulations on insolvency proceedings have promoted an incremental approach towards substantive harmonization. This strategy has not remained unquestioned. One of the major criticisms is that such a course of actions overlooks the nature of the issues currently raised in multi-national and cross-disciplinary bankruptcy procedures.

This Article focuses on the Anglo/American bankruptcy tradition. It adopts a doctrinal methodology to question the conclusion that “collectivity” is and should be a procedural, objective, and secondary notion in light of two case studies. It suggests that in the context of cross-border, …

Infinite Jest: The Otiose Quest For Completeness In Validating Insolvency Judgments, Bruce A. Markell

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Universalism in cross-border bankruptcies strives to reduce waste, and harmonize restructuring and recoveries. Universalism’s avatar is UNCITRAL’s 1997 Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvencies (Model Law). Underlying the Model Law, however, is an implicit assumption that court orders entered in the proceeding where the debtor’s center of main interests is located will be respected in all other states in which the debtor has assets or operations. That assumption may have been incorrect, as shown by cases such as the United Kingdom’s Rubin v. Eurofinance, S.A.

This Article looks at UNCITRAL’s reaction to Rubin: its new Model Law on Recognition …

Investor-State Dispute Settlement Reconceptionalized: Regulation Of Disputes, Standards And Mediation, M. R. Dahlan, Wolf Von Kumberg

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This paper argues that the current criticisms of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) are ill-informed, and attempts at reforming the system are misguided. The definition of ISDS itself has been, for a long time, limited to investment quasi-judicial bodies or at best arbitration. Analysis of the roots of the ever growing backlash reveals that the main causes for concern are politically negotiated investment treaties, an inherently biased system, lack of transparency, and inconsistent decision-making. Examination of the core reasons behind these complaints leads to the conclusion that the EU Commission’s solution to reform ISDS through a permanent court raises more issues …