Laws, treaties and soft law

The 2020 revisions to the IBA rules of evidence reflect prevailing best practice and accommodate critical technological advances and the arbitration community’s response to major global developments such as the covid-19 pandemic, argue Samantha Rowe and Mark McCloskey of Debevoise & Plimpton and Kshama Loya and Bhavana Sunder of Nishith Desai Associates.

27 August 2021

TRANSLATION ADDED: On 30 July, China's Ministry of Justice published a consultation draft of revisions to the Chinese Arbitration Law that would considerably liberalise its arbitration infrastructure. Fangda Partners’ Lin Yanhua and Matthew Townsend identify some key takeaways for international parties from the recently circulated draft amendments.

09 August 2021

Gary Born and Soledad Peña Plaza of WilmerHale in London consider a “remarkable” recent decision by Ecuador’s Constitutional Court that the country’s ratification of the ICSID Convention does not require the approval of its National Assembly.

16 July 2021

In a major policy reversal, a new government in Ecuador has signed the ICSID Convention more than a decade after the state withdrew from the treaty.

21 June 2021

All mainland China-seated arbitral awards are now enforceable in Hong Kong and parties can pursue parallel enforcement in both jurisdictions, after the special administrative region enacted updates to an arrangement on mutual enforcement of awards.

16 June 2021

A taskforce at the International Council for Commercial Arbitration has published guidelines on standards of practice in international arbitration to address concerns that behaviour in the field has repeatedly fallen “below minimum civility standards.”

09 June 2021

A webinar organised by the World Bank and Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Justice considered the country’s efforts to improve its business and investment climate by enhancing dispute settlement and prevention mechanisms. Martin Gronemann of Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg reports.

07 June 2021

The Law Commission of England and Wales is inviting comment on whether it should review the 1996 Arbitration Act and consider introducing trust law arbitration in the jurisdiction.

12 May 2021

Peruvian presidential frontrunner Pedro Castillo has pledged to withdraw the country from ICSID and other ISDS mechanisms and create a new regional arbitration centre for South American nations if he wins a runoff vote in June.

07 May 2021

An advocate general of the European Court of Justice has advised that individual arbitration agreements between EU investors and member states are compatible with EU law – but only if final awards are subject to “comprehensive review” by member states' courts.

22 April 2021