Topic: Arbitrator challenges

Uría Menéndez partner Gabriel Bottini has survived an attempt to disqualify him from an ICSID annulment committee on the ground that he was not candid about the extent of his counsel work for the Argentine government when challenged in a prior ICSID case seven years ago.

31 October 2019

A US appeals court has vacated a sole arbitrator’s award on the basis that he failed to disclose his ownership interest in the arbitral institution that administered the dispute – a precedent that a dissenting judge warns is likely to generate “endless litigation” in other cases.

24 October 2019

Former Covington & Burling partner Oscar Garibaldi has been disqualified from sitting as arbitrator in an investment treaty case against Venezuela following a challenge over his past counsel work for parties adverse to the state.

22 July 2019

Cameroon has failed in a bid to dislodge Argentine arbitrator Horacio Grigera Naón as tribunal chair in a long-running ICC arbitration on the grounds of his failure to disclose repeated appointments by private parties in disputes involving states or state entities.

25 June 2019

Spain has failed to disqualify British arbitrator Vaughan Lowe QC from hearing an ICSID case over reforms to its renewable energy regime.

15 May 2019

The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators has been granted access to English court documents relating to the disqualification of a well-known construction arbitrator for use in disciplinary proceedings against him.

29 April 2019

Weeks after he joined in an ICSID decision holding Spain liable in connection with reforms to its renewable energy regime, the state has applied to disqualify UK arbitrator Vaughan Lowe QC as tribunal chair in a separate case at the centre relating to the same measures.

25 April 2019

Italian arbitrator Loretta Malintoppi has resigned as chair of an ICSID tribunal hearing a claim against Colombia after being challenged over her husband’s counsel work for the state in a separate dispute.

06 February 2019

Germany has applied to disqualify all three members of the ICSID tribunal hearing a €4.7 billion Energy Charter Treaty claim filed by Swedish nuclear investor Vattenfall, weeks after the arbitrators posed questions to the parties.

14 November 2018

76-year old Swedish arbitrator Sigvard Jarvin has survived an attempt to disqualify him as chair of a billion-dollar construction dispute at the ICC on the grounds that his age meant there was a risk he would fail to finish hearing the case and that the costs of insuring against such an event were prohibitive.

15 October 2018