The Law Of Arbitration And 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.

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.

Arbitration Law of Canada provides the busy lawyer and arbitrator with a handy day to day reference work. This is a comprehensive treatise on the law and practice of arbitration in Canada. The text covers all aspects of commercial arbitration: when to choose arbitration; how to draft an effective arbitration clause; how to choose an arbitrator; the legal and practical aspects of arbitrating in Canada under both the UNCITRAL Model Law as well as domestic legislation, and enforcing awards in Canada, regardless of the jurisdiction in which they were made. The book covers arbitration law in all the Canadian Provinces. It is not only a definitive legal text, but has been designed and organized to be a handy reference text for arbitration practitioners. The second edition includes a revised and expanded index, a complete index of cases, and a number of additional "practice notes". The chapters dealing with court involvement in arbitration, challenges and recognition of awards, have been extensively revised to take into account the numerous court decisions released since the last edition.

International commercial arbitration relies extensively on the possibility of enforcing arbitral decisions against recalcitrant parties. Because courts and arbitration laws across the world take contrasting approaches to the definition of awards, such enforcement can be problematic, especially in the context of awards by consent, and the recent development known as ‘emergency arbitration’. In this timely and ground-breaking book, a young arbitration scholar takes us through the difficulties of defining the notion of arbitral award with a rare combination of theoretical awareness and attention to the procedural requirements of arbitral practice. In a framework using a comparative analysis of common law and civil law jurisdictions (specifically, England and France) and how each has regulated in different ways the equilibria between state justice and arbitral justice – and comparing each with the UNCITRAL Model Law – the book addresses such issues as the following: - the ‘judicialization’ of arbitration; - different models of arbitral adjudication and their impact on the notion of award; - what an award needs to contain to be enforceable; - awards on competence; - awards by consent; and - awards ante causam. The author employs a methodology that views arbitration as providing an institution for administering justice rather than as a purely contractual creature. To this end, rules of arbitral institutions (particularly the International Chamber of Commerce) are examined closely for their implications on what an award means. As a fresh look at the arbitral award by placing it in a broader context than is usually found, this book allows for a greater understanding of the functioning of international commercial arbitration. It is sure to become an international reference, and as such will be welcomed by arbitrators, practitioners at global law firms, companies doing transnational business, interested academics, and international arbitration centres in emerging markets.

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.”

Generally speaking, the losing party is more interested than the winning party in understanding the reasons for the outcome of the proceeding. And yet, the requirement that, unless otherwise agreed by the parties, the award “shall state the reasons upon which it is based” is a widely recognized principle in international arbitration. The rules of most arbitral institutions also require that an award include reasons. This Institute Dossier addresses reasoning in International Commercial and Investment Arbitration Awards: Should an arbitrator state his reasons? Why? How extensive and/or complete must the reasoning be for the process to be fully comprehensible and thus legitimate to the parties? What may be the consequences of an unsatisfactory reasoning? Readers will get useful insights into the legal reasoning process by accessing data from a recent large-scale empirical study of legal reasoning in commercial disputes. They will also be treated to some creative writing tips in the hope that reading an award becomes a more interesting part of the job. The ICC Institute of World Business Law brings together the finest legal minds to strengthen links between international business practitioners and the legal profession. The Institute ‘Dossiers’ is a series that has gained international prestige. These Dossiers are the outcome of the Institute’s annual meetings, where experts from around the globe come together to discuss salient issues of international commercial law and arbitration. An ICC Services publication, distributed by Kluwer Law International.