International Arbitration
A world class arbitration practice advising clients on commercial and investment arbitration all around the world
Our specialised arbitration counsel have considerable experience of representing a wide range of clients across a variety of sectors (including energy, mining, construction, technology, telecommunications, financial services, pharmaceuticals and many more) in complex, high value arbitrations.
Recent experience includes representing :
We regularly represent both investors and states in significant arbitrations under bilateral and multilateral investment treaties. We also help our investor clients navigate complex legal, cultural and political landscapes to secure the best ongoing protection for their foreign investments, often providing risk mitigation advice before and during the life cycle of critical investments.
Recent experience includes representing:
Our arbitration team regularly represents individuals, corporations, state and sovereign entities in local court proceedings all over the world before, during and after arbitrations. This includes helping clients obtaining court orders in support of arbitration, recognition, enforcement, and setting aside proceedings for both commercial and investment treaty awards, and tracing and seising assets to enforce against. This work often requires seamless co-ordination across multiple jurisdictions in parallel.
Recent experience includes representing:
4 octobre 2024 //
Throwing “the kitchen sink” and a “scattershot approach” – these are some of the colourful phrases that the Singapore courts have recently used to describe ill-founded attempts by award debtors seeking to set aside arbitral awards.
The Singapore courts are known for their pro-arbitration stance, and this position has been manifest in a series of recent decisions on applications to set-aside awards. We take a short look at what may be learnt from these.2 octobre 2024 //
Arbitration awards need to be signed by the arbitrators. In most jurisdictions, it is sufficient for a majority of the arbitral tribunal to sign, provided that the reason for any missing signature is stated. In a multibillion Euro arbitration seated in Germany, this issue has come to a head, prompting the German Federal Court of Justice to weigh in and provide clarification.
23 septembre 2024 //
The UK Supreme Court (UKSC) has ruled, in the UniCredit case, on the power of the English courts to issue an anti-suit injunction in support of a foreign-seated arbitration. Although its decision is generally, within the limits of the court’s jurisdictional boundaries, supportive of the practice, the ruling impacts on the UKSC’s ruling in Enka, and also highlights broader issues concerning the interplay between the law of a contract, and the law of the seat of arbitration where they do not “match”.
19 septembre 2024 //
It was the German Federal Constitutional Court‘s turn to weigh in for a second time on insurance group Achmea‘s ill-fated attempt to pursue an investment treaty claim against the Slovak Republic on the basis of a bilateral investment treaty between the Slovak Republic and the Netherlands: With two decisions dated 23 July 2024 the court rejected Achmea‘s constitutional complaints related to its pursuit.
9 septembre 2024 //
The DC Circuit has delivered judgment in NextEra Energy Global Holdings B.V. v Kingdom of Spain, the latest chapter in a complex, worldwide battle over recognition and enforcement of ‘intra-EU’ investment arbitration awards. The judgment upholds jurisdiction over the Kingdom of Spain, finding that the ‘arbitration exception’ to immunity in the US FSIA applies notwithstanding Spain’s attack on the validity of ‘intra-EU’ arbitration agreements.
8 août 2024 //
In Republic of Korea v Elliott Associates LP [2024] EWHC 2037 (Comm), the English Commercial Court rejected a challenge to a US$50 million treaty award brought by the Republic of Korea under section 67 of the English Arbitration Act 1996. The decision is of interest as it touches on when, in a non-ICSID investment treaty arbitration, a tribunal’s decision on matters which might broadly be classified as “jurisdictional” is liable to challenge under s.67.
19 juillet 2024 //
The Arbitration Bill, the previous iteration of which had fallen as a result of the snap UK general election, is to be taken forward by the new UK Government as part of its legislative programme. In July, it took the first step on its renewed legislative journey.
10 juillet 2024 //
ICSID has recently published a comprehensive overview of the ICSID Convention’s regime relating to compliance, recognition, enforcement and execution of ICSID Convention awards. This blog-post takes a short look at its findings.
9 juillet 2024 //
In the recent case of Sian Participation Corp v Halimeda International Ltd [2024] UKPC 16, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, handed down an important judgment concerning the ability of creditors to obtain a winding up order from the English courts on the ground that a debtor is unable to pay its debts, where the relevant debt arises from a contract subject to an arbitration agreement, or an exclusive jurisdiction agreement in favour of a foreign court.