Let’s talk today about enforcement in New York of arbitral awards annulled in Lagos, Nigeria. Big ones. USD $2 Billion, give or take. I know, you think you have heard and read enough about this topic. But really, where are you going to go today? Wash your hands and read on. The scripture for today’s sermon is a judgment of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, now in the throes of an appeal before the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals, in Esso Exploration & Production Nigeria Ltd. v. Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., 397 F….
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If you are learning here for the first time that a divided panel of the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated an arbitration award, on the Federal Arbitration Act ground of “evident partiality,” rendered in a JAMS arbitration by a retired California trial judge who had served as a JAMS arbitrator in over 1500 cases since 2000 (Monster Energy Co. v. City Beverages, LLC, 2019 WL 5382062 (9th Cir. Oct. 22, 2019)), perhaps you have been diverted to a lengthy hearing or a languorous holiday. Before I elaborate, to explain why the Ninth Circuit took umbrage at the arbitrator’s…
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There are a variety of ways you might attempt to learn more than you already know about how international arbitrators handle allegations of corruption that are presented as claims or defenses in a pending case. You might sign up for a conference and, at some expense, hear condensed remarks by very knowledgeable individuals who have participated in such cases as counsel or arbitrators (e.g. a one-hour session at the ICC event in New York on October 4, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.). You might download the GAR “tool kit” on corruption. (I will). You might download a recently published arbitral…
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When you see me in the street, you can tell that I’m a pro-arbitration kind of guy. I wear my FAA hoodie, usually with the hood down, the better for you to admire my snowy white hair and furrowed, gravitas-laden brow. So when a US Court of Appeals takes a swing at arbitration, my instinct is to swing back. Fifth Circuit, take this 🤜. (As a response to the decision here discussed, Archer & White Sales, Inc. v. Henry Schein, Inc., 2019 WL 3812352 (5th Cir. Aug. 14, 2019)). Actually, the Fifth Circuit got punched already this year for being…
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Preliminary Remarks Corruption, usually bribery or solicitation for bribery, occupies much attention among parties and tribunals in international arbitration. In investment arbitration, there is evidence of this in the Awards and other records of proceedings collected at italaw.com and elsewhere in online repositories. In commercial arbitration, we know this mainly from experience and anecdotal evidence. The discussion in this Commentary pertains to corruption as it bears upon the enforceability of the underlying transactions in the arbitration. Possible corruption in the arbitral process itself – such as attempts (actual or alleged) to bribe an arbitrator or a witness – are a…
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Even a casual follower of the US Supreme Court’s arbitration jurisprudence needed neither a crystal ball nor an HID light bulb to foresee that the employer would defeat the employees in the Lamps Plus case. (Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela, No. 17-988 (April 24, 2019)). The real question is and always has been what pathway to pursue a class arbitration would remain open in light of the majority’s reasoning, in the equally predictable 5-4 outcome with the Court’s conservative bloc fully subscribed to Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion. The path taken, it appears, has less to do with class arbitration than…
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