Europe’s legal think thanks are turning their attention to class actions and similar concepts: We recently mentioned Berlin’s Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance’s Conference on the topic – posts on this are to follow. Now, the Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law (HiiL) and the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) announce a workshop on ‘Collective Redress in the Cross-Border Context: Arbitration, Litigation and Beyond.’ The three-day event will be held June 20 – 22, 2012, at the NIAS site in Wassenaar, twenty minutes outside of the Hague. The event is free, but registration is required. For more information, including the full programme, see the HiiL website.
Month: June 2012
Financial Dispute Resolution and PRIME – A Survey
The financial crisis and related events are widely believed to have led to an increase of disputes in the finance industry. Against this background, in January 2012 the Panel of Recognised International Market Experts in Finance (“PRIME”) opened inThe Hague to provide a bespoke forum to assist in the resolution of financial markets disputes. Claiming to have assembled a panel of industry specialists with collectively over 2,000 years of experience, PRIME offers judicial training, advisory opinions, experts for disputes, a mediation service and an arbitration facility based on a customised version of the UNCITRAL rules. Read More
Atomic Arbitration: Vattenfall Challenges Germany’s Nuclear Power Phase-Out in ICSID Arbitration
With Germany’s nuclear power phase-out being a cornerstone of goverment policy, the challenge by Swedish energy company Vattenfall is bringing the rather arcane subject of investor-state arbitration into the headlights of the national press: Based on the Energy Charter Treaty, Vattenfall is seeking compensation of losses that result from Vattenfall having to phase out its nuclear power plants in Germany. Allegedly, damages are in the billions.
Mediating the Mediation Act – Next Round
The Mediation Committee (Vermittlungsausschuss) of the upper and the lower house of the German parliament (Bundesrat and Bundestag) has put the Mediation Act on the agenda for its June 13, 2012 session. It remains to be seen whether a compromise can be reached on the role of the courts in mediation. An activist role for judges as mediators is an issue close to the heart of some federal states, and which has held up the timely implementation of the EU Mediation Directive until now.