Arbitration Awards

The growth in cross-border investments in an increasingly globalised economy means that there are more international disputes between foreign investors and states than ever before. Spearheaded by leading arbitration practitioner, Julien Fouret, this second edition brings together more than 70 experts to provide substantive analysis of recurring issues at the award enforcement stage plus practical perspectives on enforcing awards based on investment treaties.

A unique collaboration between academic scholars, legal practitioners, and arbitrators, this handbook focuses on the intersection of arbitration - as an alternative to litigation - and the court systems to which arbitration is ultimately beholden. The first three parts analyze issues relating to the interpretation of the scope of arbitration agreements, arbitrator bias and conflicts of interest, arbitrator misconduct during the proceedings, enforceability of arbitral awards, and the grounds for vacating awards. The next section features fifteen country-specific reviews, which demonstrate that, despite the commonality of principles at the international level, there is a significant amount of differences in the application of those principles at the national level. This work should be read by anyone interested in the general rules and principles of the enforceability of foreign arbitral awards and the grounds for courts to vacate or annul such awards.

The rise of international investment arbitration has resulted in the emergence of a number of intriguing legal and political challenges. One of those is the question of whether or not arbitral awards may constitute investments pursuant to existing investment treaties. In approaching the problem, it is the interconnection between theory and practice that delivers solutions. This book presents the first detailed analysis of the existing tribunals’ approaches to date. In examining the principles of treaty interpretation, their application in arbitral practice, shortcomings and their ramifications and possible routes to improvement, the book addresses the following questions: - What is the foundation of interpretation in public international law and when is it adequately carried out? - Can arbitral awards constitute investments, offering relief from frustrated enforcement attempts? - Is there a trend of convergence of commercial and investment arbitration? - Do respective interpretative outcomes stem from adequate interpretation? - What are the ramifications, if interpretation is not fully adequate? - What are the feasible routes to greater interpretive discipline? The book is mindful of the underlying public international law principles, such as state sovereignty and the increasing legal and political dynamics of international investment law. This is the first in-depth treatise on arbitral awards’ qualification as investments within international investment law. Its detailed analysis of the interpretive approaches, their foundation and consequences will, from a theoretical and practical point of view, prove of great value to international tribunals, counsel and sovereign entities. Maximilian Clasmeier has gained international arbitration experience in the dispute resolution practices of international law firms in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Singapore and worked for the World Bank Group in Washington, D.C.

This book examines how the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, commonly known as The New York Convention, has been understood and applied in [insert number] jurisdictions, including virtually all that are leading international arbitration centers. It begins with a general report surveying and synthesizing national responses to a large number of critical issues in the Convention’s interpretation and application. It is followed by national reports, all of which are organized in accordance with a common questionnaire raising these critical issues. Following introductory remarks, each report addresses the following aspects of the Convention which include its basic implementation within the national legal system; enforcement by local courts of agreements to arbitrate (including grounds for withholding enforcement), recognition and enforcement of foreign awards by local courts under the Convention (including grounds for denying recognition and enforcement), and essential procedural issues in the courts’ conduct of recognition and enforcement. Each report concludes with an overall assessment of the Convention’s interpretation and application on national territory and recommendations, if any, for reform. The New York Convention was intended to enhance the workings of the international arbitral system, primarily by ensuring that arbitral awards are readily recognizable and enforceable in States other than the State in which they are rendered, subject of course to certain safeguards reflected by the Convention’s limited grounds for denying recognition or enforcement. It secondarily binds signatory states to enforce the arbitration agreements on the basis of which awards under the Convention will be rendered. Despite its exceptionally wide adoption and its broad coverage, the New York Convention depends for its efficacy on the conduct of national actors, and national courts in particular. Depending on the view of international law prevailing in a given State, the Convention may require statutory implementation at the national level. Beyond that, the Convention requires of national courts an apt understanding of the principles and policies that underlie the Convention’s various provisions. Through its in-depth coverage of the understandings of the Convention that prevail across national legal systems, the book gives practitioners and scholars a much-improved appreciation of the New York Convention “on the ground.”

The specialization and financial demand of global business render international transactions inherently multilateral and thus best effected through arbitration agreements. However, it often happens that – for various reasons, such as a debtor’s failure to pay damages ordered by an arbitral tribunal – third parties who did not consent to the original arbitration enter the scene. This is the first book to examine the binding effects of international commercial arbitral awards in follow-up disputes against third parties. It comprehensively analyses arbitral awards’ third-party effects under national arbitration laws, the New York Convention and private international law. Moreover, it proposes solutions under transnational law before both courts and arbitral tribunals. Applying a continuously comparative methodology that refers to specific statutory, jurisprudential and scholarly sources, this book explores the nature and implications of such aspects of third-party involvement as the following: the foundations of the doctrine of res judicata and its intrinsic connection to other tools of forum coordination; the distinction between res judicata before courts on the one hand and arbitral tribunals on the other; the application of non-mutual preclusion in favour of third parties; the potential for arbitral awards to constitute a fact in follow-up disputes; a comparison of rules and uncertainties on awards’ third-party effects under various national arbitration acts; preclusion agreements; the arbitration agreement’s scope; and judgments’ third-party effects as a shift of the participatory burden. For civil law, the author focuses on France and Switzerland (as predominant arbitral seats) and on Germany (as a Model Law example). Among common-law countries, he concentrates on England and Wales and on the United States. Statutory sources (with specific wording), leading cases and summaries of the most important scholarly discussions are all invoked. With its clear guidelines for matters currently not addressed in previous publications and likely to be raised in specific cases, this book will prove to be of immeasurable value for arbitration practitioners and academics in any jurisdiction. Business parties that seek to prevent contradicting decisions in multilateral transactions will appreciate the practically feasible alternatives it presents in the event of follow-up disputes involving third parties.

Merely obtaining a favorable arbitral award or judgment at the end of a dispute holds little value unless the prevailing party is able to enforce it. This book, more thoroughly than any other source, shows practitioners how to navigate the relevant laws in New York—a leading global financial center known for its pro-enforcement policies and the powerful discovery tools it makes available to creditors. No other resource explores the current state of the law in New York as comprehensively as this book. Beyond its sheer practical significance given the likelihood of debtors having assets in (or routing U.S. dollar transactions through) New York, this book provides creditors and their counsel with the critical information they need to define their global enforcement strategy and facilitate their enforcement efforts not only in New York but potentially worldwide. Among the issues and topics that the book tackles are the following: • review of the fundamentals of U.S. practice and procedure for non–New York practitioners; • easy to understand, jargon-free explanation of the often daunting state and federal procedures for enforcement; • up-to-date, clear presentation of the relevant case law, including key state and federal decisions; • explanation of how state and federal laws intersect with international law; • review of significant recent developments impacting a creditor's ability to reach foreign defendants and their assets outside the U.S. in post-judgment execution proceedings; and • comprehensive advice on the practicalities of executing a judgment. Given the critical role New York plays in a host of cross-border transactions and its status as a hub for worldwide judgment and award enforcement, the demand to better understand the laws and judicial system within the state has never been higher. This comprehensive yet practical guide to navigating award and judgment enforcement in New York provides the understanding both the basics and the nuances in this area that is critical for any domestic or international practitioner when advising a client as to the likelihood of collection in or through New York.