With the year end in sight, I looked back at what posts you read most in 2013. The three main categories that Dispute Resolution Germany covers – arbitration, litigation and mediation – are all represented. Investment arbitration emerges as THE hot topic, with four entries in the top ten. Arbitration in total accounts for seven posts. Here are the top ten posts: Read More
Category: Investor State Arbitration
Ethics in International Arbitration: The Big Debate
In May 2013, the IBA Council approved the IBA Guidelines on Party Representation in International Arbitration. The Guidelines are addressing a perception that “international arbitration has something of a reputation as the ‘Wild West’ of the law; a land where personalities are at least as important (or perhaps more so) than procedural rules, and legal representatives can be viewed by their clients as hired guns.” This is how Matthew Seys-Llewellyn’s put it in a report at Halsbury’s Law Exchange about a debate on the topic held in London on November 18, 2013: Read More
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.
Frankfurt Conference on Recent Developments in Investment Arbitration, October 24, 2013
On October 24, 2013, the German Institution of Arbitration (DIS) is hosting a half-day conference on “Recent Developments in Investment Arbitration”. The venue is the Frankfurt International Arbitration Center (FIAC) at the Frankfurt Chamber of Commerce and Industry (see here for the full programme). The conference commences at 9:00 am with an address by the Minister of Justice in the Federal State of Hesse, Jörg Uwe Hahn, ending at noon with a lunch reception. One of the hot topics will of course be the Eureko v. Slovak Republic case, in which the Frankfurt Court of Appeals (Oberlandesgericht) had upheld a BIT arbitration clause and found against the Slovak Republic – the matter is currently pending before the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) – and the approach by the European Union to BIT Arbitration more generally.