Browsing through this week’s issue of The Economist, I get the impression that the US Congress is somewhat over-lawyered: “Though fewer than one in 200 Americans has a law licence, the profession can lay claim to a third of the current House of Representatives and to more than half the seats in the Senate.” These 33% and 50%, respectively, in the US compare to 14% in Britain’s House of Commons and its Canadian counterpart. And only one in 15 deputies (7%) in the French Assemblée Nationale is a lawyer. As Germany did just elect a new Bundestag in September 2013, I was curious to see what our figures were: Read More
Month: October 2013
German Federal Supreme Court: Procedural Order in Slovakia v. Eureko
Investment arbitration under investment treaties between EU member states is a hot topic, in particular given the EU Commission’s strong views on the subject: The Commission has intervened in arbitrations in support of the position that the arbitral tribunal lacked jurisdiction to hear the dispute. One such matter was Eureko v. Slovakia, apparently the first case where this issue was brought before a state court, when Slovakia challenged an interim award confirming the jurisdiction of the tribunal in the Frankfurt Court of Appeals (Oberlandesgericht). The Frankfurt court in May 2012 upheld the award (see here and here for comments). The matter proceeded to the German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) for judicial review (Rechtsbeschwerde). The Federal Supreme court published its order (Beschluss) dated September 19, 2013 on its website earlier this week.
New German Judgment on Recognition of Russian Judgments
My earlier posts on Russian matters (here, and here, for example) have attracted more comments, in particular in LinkedIn fora, than any other topics covered in this blog. So I guess that readers will be interested to learn that Michael Wietzorek has just published a case note, on the CIS Arbitration Blog, on a recent decision by the Augsburg District Court (Landgericht) declaring a Russian judgment enforceable in Germany.
IBA Conference 2013, Boston
Just arrived in Boston – looking forward to this year’s IBA Conference, and to seeing you there!
P.S.: Check the twitter hashtag #ibaboston!