Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Commons^™

The Self-Styled 'Autonomy' Of International Arbitration, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

Among international legal regimes, international arbitration has traditionally claimed for itself a remarkable degree of autonomy from other international regimes, an autonomy that enables it to enjoy a remarkable measure of self-determination. Its assertions of autonomy take a number of different forms and exhibit considerable resilience. Autonomy does allow international arbitration to develop in accordance with norms that are specific to it, but it also poses challenges that need, even for international arbitration’s own well-being, to be acknowledged and addressed.

Costs Allocation In International Arbitration: What Normative Source, If Any?, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

Costs in arbitration is one of those many issues that arises constantly (at least in any arbitration that gets underway), but as to which there is by no means any universally accepted standard of judgment. It is also not particularly usual for parties to address the issue of costs directly in their arbitration agreement, or for the matter to be addressed in the law of arbitration of the seat. If the rules of arbitral procedure that the parties may have incorporated into their arbitration agreement address the matter, they may not do so in highly informative terms. The Rules of …

The Oecd Multilateral Tax Instrument: A Model For Reforming The International Investment Regime?, Wolfgang Alschner

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The international tax and investment regimes display striking similarities. They are both based on thousands of bilateral treaties that follow similar principles but differ in fine print. They each facilitate the free flow of international capital by respectively disciplining fiscal and regulatory host state conduct. Finally, they share common historical foundations and have experienced similar periods of rapid diffusion and deep contestation. Yet, while the international tax regime recently accomplished a sweeping reform to solve a decades-old legitimacy crisis, the investment regime is still grappling with its own legitimacy crisis and reform. In 2018, the multilateral tax instrument (MLI) entered …

Sovereign Immunity For Russia's Rocket Engines? Enforcing The "Yukos" Award, Evan Drake

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

In 2003 Yukos Oil Company was once the largest oil company in Russia, and its oligarch CEO was Russia’s richest man. By 2007 Yukos had been dissolved, its CEO arrested, and its assets acquired by Russian state oil giants Rosneft and Gazprom. The fall of Yukos triggered what may be the largest arbitral dispute of all time. In 2014, the former shareholders of Yukos successfully won a $50 billion award against Russia for violations of the Energy Charter Treaty – by far the largest in history. Now the shareholders need to collect. This Note examines how Yukos could enforce its …

Third-Party Funding: The Road To Compatibility In International Arbitration, Vienna Messina

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Third-party funding in global commerce and dispute resolution has gained considerable traction in the last few decades. The rise in complex international arbitration cases has encouraged a demand for third-party funding arrangements since the disputes involve large amounts of money in addition to high legal costs. This Note explores the implications of third-party funding on the practice of international arbitration, particularly with the expansion of arbitral institutions’ doctrinal rules to address the use of third-party funding. Much of the pre-existing research and literature highlights the issues that third-party funding poses in international arbitration proceedings, but fails to consider a broader, …

Rethinking Adjudicative Jurisdiction In International Law, Satya T. Mouland

Washington International Law Journal

The contribution of national courts to international law has long been doubted in the international law literature. As an aspect of the state’s power to prescribe, courts have been conceived as organs that merely apply the state’s laws, which may give effect to an international law norm. According to this conception, national courts merely apply and operate within the state’s national legal system and rarely have a direct contribution to international law. However, in enforcement proceedings for international arbitral awards, arising at the intersection between the law of state immunity and the law governing the enforcement of arbitral awards, a …

Hybrid Dispute Resolution Beyond The Belt And Road: Toward A New Design Of Chinese Arb-Med(-Arb) And Its Global Implications, Weixia Gu

Washington International Law Journal

Arb-med is a form of hybrid dispute resolution that combines an adjudicative approach (arbitration) with a non-adjudicative approach (mediation). Dispute resolution clauses requiring arb-med will assume a popular role in resolving disputes that arise under China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This article argues that China should regulate arb-med in a way to reconcile local practices (mediation) with international expectations (arbitration) in context of the BRI. As an economic bloc proposed by China, the BRI development has the potential to promote dispute resolution means with Chinese characteristics such as arb-med. Global comparative study of leading arbitration jurisdictions in the East and …

International Commercial Arbitration Law And Practice In Thailand, Parada Kaewparadai

SJD Dissertations

International Commercial Arbitration is one of the essential mechanisms that support and facilitate international trade transactions, especially when the parties are from different nations. Since it is an alternative dispute resolution that provides a final and binding award that is enforceable through the national courts mostly everywhere around the world, it becomes the most popular dispute resolution for international enterprises. Arbitration has been in existence in Thai Laws for centuries, but its role has been minimal as litigation is the primary adjudicate method of the country. However, in the past twenty years, arbitration has been developing rapidly since Alternative Dispute …

Confidentiality Agreements: The Florida Sunshine In Litigation Act, The #Metoo Movement, And Signing Away The Right To Speak, Loune-Djenia Askew

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Arbitration And Attorney-Client Privilege — A Conflict Of Laws Approach, Susan Franck

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Privilege determinations in international arbitration are currently the equivalent of the “wild west,” with minimal predictability and massive pockets of tribunal discretion. Yet protecting privilege in international arbitration — when the same document or communications with lawyers that is protected by United States law may receive no protection under another law — is fundamental to safeguarding attorney-client relationships within a global environment, incentivizing procedural integrity of dispute resolution, and ensuring that justice is done. As it is not clear what law applies to privilege and client confidentiality (let alone how the law is determine), this Essay begins to bridge the …

International Dispute Resolution Survey: Currents Of Change: 2019 Preliminary Report (Sidra), Nadja Alexander, Janet Carolyn Checkley, Shou Yu Chong, Joel Ng, Daoyuan Zhu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The 2019 International Dispute Resolution Survey: Currents of Change Preliminary Report presents the first-look findings of the Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy's groundbreaking examination into the preferences, practices, and perspectives of international dispute resolution users around the globe. These findings examine three international dispute resolution mechanisms: International Commercial Arbitration, International Commercial Mediation, and International Commercial Litigation. The report summarises findings from each mechanism in turn and provides an overview of the results, then explores key trends drawn from the data identifying currents of change drawing international dispute resolution into the third decade of the 21st century.

Un Treaty On Mediation Signed In Singapore, Nadja Alexander, Shou Yu Chong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Singapore Convention on Mediation is a multilateral treaty which offers a legal framework facilitating the circulation of international mediated settlement agreements (iMSAs) across national borders. The Singapore Convention achieves this by elevating iMSAs to the status of a new type of legal instrument recognised in international law: neither a contract nor a consent arbitral award, iMSAs that fall within the scope of, and that satisfy the conditions within, the Singapore Convention enjoy a unique status. As outlined below, the new Convention establishes a system for the recognition and enforcement of commercial iMSAs. This report is a follow up to …

Equitable Fraud And Double Liability Of A Debtor Following Notice Of Equitable Assignment Of The Debt, Chee Ho Tham

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

‘Equitable fraud’ is broader in its conception than fraud at common law. Notwithstanding ambiguities as to its precise boundaries, equitable fraud can help explain why a debtor who tenders payment to his or her creditor, despite having received notice that the money debt had been equitably assigned to an assignee, may be ordered to make payment to the assignee if the creditor-assignor were to abscond with the sums tendered, leaving the assignee out of pocket. Such liability can be explained on grounds of the debtor having committed a form of equitable fraud by dishonestly assisting in the creditor-assignor’s breach of …

Singapore Case Note: Enforceability Of Settlement Agreements, Nadja Alexander, Shou Yu Chong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Since the signing of the Singapore Convention on Mediation in August this year, there has been an increased interest on the enforceability of settlement agreements, particularly those arising from mediation. The case of Law Chau Loon v Alphire Group Pte Ltd [2019] SGHC 275 from the Singapore High Court provides us with some general legal principles to consider when a settlement agreement is drafted. Although mediation did not take place between the parties in dispute, the principles stated by the High Court here remain relevant to the drafting of binding mediated settlement agreements (MSAs). This case is essential reading for …

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 …

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 …

Securing Adequate Legal Defense In Proceedings Under International Investment Agreements: A Scoping Study, Lise Johnson, Brooke Guven

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

CCSI prepared a Scoping Study for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. Also available are:

• A summary version of the study (33 pages)
• A webinar (March 24, 2020), hosted by CCSI and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, discussed the Scoping Study and its findings (see also accompanying slides with speaking notes).
• A webinar organized by UNCITRAL (April 21, 2020). CCSI presented the Scoping Study. A video link of the webinar along with CCSI’s slides are available in English (with speaking notes) and French at that link. CCSI Senior Fellow Karl Sauvant also presented his UNCITRAL …

Foreign Arbitral Awards And The Second Circuit: Enforcement Considerations For Annulments, Calvin Jonker

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

Many international business transactions integrate an arbitration clause into the agreement as companies choose to keep potential disputes out of the court systems. Enforcement of the awards rendered pursuant to such agreements is straightforward in the United States thanks to the Federal Arbitration Act, as long as the United States is the forum for the arbitration proceeding. Even if the forum is outside of U.S. jurisdiction, several treaties, namely the Panama Convention and the New York Convention, provide for recognition of a foreign arbitrated award by U.S. courts, as well as recognition by U.S. courts of any annulment or suspension …

Arbitration Agreements – What Is The Employee Actually Signing Up For?, Kennedy Poe

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This note will examine the various effects and implications the Supreme Court’s decision concerning the legality of class action waivers within employee-employer contracts will have on employers, employees, and the contracts made between them. Part I will identify class action waivers within an employment contract’s arbitration agreement and will further elaborate upon the legal implications of such waivers being present in the contract. Part II will then discuss the history of the NLRA and assess its present-day role in employee–employer contract formation, in order to provide clarity as to the dispute that has arisen between the NLRA and class action …

Using Court-Connected Adr To Increase Court Efficiency, Address Party Needs, And Deliver Justice In Massachusetts, Madhawa Palihapitiya, Susan Jeghelian, Kaila Eisenkraft

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

This report presents research and findings from a study of court-connected ADR commissioned by the Executive Office of the Trial Court (EOTC). The study was conducted by the state office of dispute resolution also known as the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The office has been serving as a neutral forum and state-level resource for almost 30 years. Its mission is to establish programs and build capacity within public entities for enhanced conflict resolution and intergovernmental and cross-sector collaboration in order to save costs for the state and its citizens and enable effective problem-solving …