This Commentary begins, innocently, with a report of a new decision in the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, about choice of law in the arbitrability realm. I realize you are watching lot of daytime TV these days. The Edge of Night, etc. So I will try to make it interesting. Settle in, remove your mask, stay awhile. This story actually begins with the Outokumpu case. You remember Outokumpu, from last June. It is famous for a few reasons. One is that Justice Thomas wrote the opinion for a unanimous US Supreme Court. How often has that happened in 30…
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With the northern border closed except to Essential Workers, which You, sorry to say, are NOT, these are challenging times to know what’s really going on Up There in the Great White North. OK, you can binge-watch Bubble Hockey from Toronto and Edmonton. In a timeout You might catch a stirring glimpse of Lake Ontario at sunset, or a mild-mannered Albertan Black Bear seeking entry to the ice arena without a mask. 🐻 😷. But what you really crave is news of what’s happening with NAFTA (USMCA) arbitration. Arbitration Commentaries is here to help. The case that motivates this post…
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Some of you know that the editorial staff of Arbitration Commentaries has a soft spot in its heart for stories about changing the place of arbitration. And now, just in time for your beach reading (masked, distanced, and only if your beach is open), comes a new tale – or perhaps one should say a new installment of a melodrama that goes back two decades. It involves a certain Sovereign State in South America that, of late, struck out trying to swing a withdrawal of its own gold from the Bank of England. But the judicial activity that motivates this…
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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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