Recent Posts

Numerous federal district courts and a handful of federal courts of appeals have played a part in the ongoing investment treaty arbitration between Chevron Corporation and the Republic of Ecuador. They have entertained and for the most part have granted discovery applications addressed to non-parties residing in the United States, made pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Section 1782. (For the latest installment known to this writer, see In re Applications of the Republic of Ecuador, 2011 WL 4434816 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 23, 2011)). This surfeit of judicial decisions from different district courts in different parts of the country, but involving the…
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It is the first day of the new hockey season in North America, a suitable occasion for Arbitration Commentaries to bring you content inspired by our neighbors in the Great White North. By now the news will probably have reached you that the highest appellate court of the province of Ontario, the Ontario Court of Appeal, earlier this week affirmed a first instance court’s ruling that denied a motion to vacate in part a NAFTA arbitral tribunal’s award against the Government of Mexico and in favor of the US multinational Cargill, Inc. (Mexico v. Cargill, Inc., 2011 ONCA 622 (Oct….
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Today Arbitration Commentaries briefly notes a new decision from a respected federal district judge in Houston, Texas, holding that a sale of goods contract that was between two US companies, but which provided for discharge of the shipped goods in a foreign port to be designated by the buyer created a sufficient international nexus to make the New York Convention applicable to the contract’s arbitration clause. (Tricon Energy, Ltd. v. Vinmar International, Ltd., 2011 WL 4424802 (S.D. Tex. Sept. 21, 2011). The issue is litigated from time to time, especially when one party sees a tactical advantage to holding award…
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The arbitration rules of America’s Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (FINRA) present a special, and sui generis, but economically significant, species of arbitrability controversies. FINRA, as successor to the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) is the self-regulatory organization of the securities industry. Established pursuant to the federal securities laws, FINRA rules provide that member firms agree to resolve certain disputes by arbitration under FINRA’s arbitration rules. Last week the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the US arm of the Swiss investment banking giant UBS on a FINRA arbitrability issue, made complicated by the fact that the claims…
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In an American variation on the Dallah v. Pakistan fact pattern (an award enforcement proceeding against a foreign state that did not sign the arbitration agreement), the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a District Court order vacating a sister court’s earlier confirmation of a reinsurance arbitration award rendered against a non-signatory Brazilian state entity. (Aurum Asset Managers, LLC v. Bradesco Companhia de Seguros, 2011 WL 3562897, 3d Cir. Aug. 15, 2011)). But unlike in Dallah, the non-signatory question faced by the District Court in the confirmation proceedings in Aurum involved the court’s ability to exercise the subject-matter…
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The arbitration community should derive much satisfaction from reading a recent thorough and well-annotated application of the New York Convention and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to confirm an arbitration award against a foreign state, authored by an experienced and well-respected U.S. District Court Judge in New York.  Thai-Lao (Thailand) Lignite Coal Ltd. v. Government of Lao People’s Democratic Republic, 2011 WL 3516154 (S.D.N.Y. August 3, 2011)).  I will find one portion of the decision against which to register a complaint: the possibility of applying the doctrine of forum non conveniens to deny consideration of a petition to confirm a…
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