Month: July 2014

Munich Court on Notarial Form Requirement for Arbitration Agreement and Kompetenz-Kompetenz

German law requires notarial form for many commercial transactions, in particular for real estate contracts and the sale and transfer of GmbH Shares. Thus, a decision by the Munich Court of Appeals (Oberlandesgericht München) on challenges to an arbitration agreement based on the lack of notarial form is of great practical relevance.

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ICC Guide for In-House Counsel on Effective Management of Arbitration Guide

The ICC’s Commission on Arbitration and ADR launched its Guide for In-House Counsel and Other Party Representatives on Effective Management of Arbitration in June 2014. The guide is designed “to provide in-house counsel and other party representatives, such as managers and government officials, with a practical toolkit for making decisions on how to conduct an arbitration in a time- and cost-effective manner, having regard to the complexity and value of the dispute.”

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Art Law: S.D.N.Y on Picasso’s “Madame Soler”and Bavaria’s Sovereign Immunity – Update

Last week, I had briefly posted that Judge Rakoff had ruled against the heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (left) in their suit seeking the restitution of Picasso’s Madame Soler. Today, we have a guest post by Michael Schulz of Frankfurt’s Goethe University who looks at the case in some more detail. Read More

Art Law: S.D.N.Y. Grants Immunity to Bavaria, Dismisses Restitution Claim for Picasso’s “Madame Soler”

In an earlier post, I had reported about the restitution claim brought against Bavaria in New York in 2013. The heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy were seeking the restitution of Picasso’s “Madame Soler” from the Bavarian State Painting Collection (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen). In a decision on June 27, 2014, Judge Rakoff dismissed the action, on the basis that  Bavaria was entitled to sovereign immunity. Read More