Recent Posts

Sometimes the answers to our most difficult questions are found hiding in plain view. Take for example a question of transcendent global importance — where a New York-seated international arbitrator should “sit” to take testimony from America’s leading non-party witnesses like Google, or Facebook, or Microsoft or Apple Computer. I have been urging you since 2015 to fly to San Jose or Seattle — and upon arrival, to sit — or at least make a plan to do that. This turns out to have been pretty good advice. But for reasons that were, well, hiding in plain view. You can…
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Maybe you thought your Section 1782 line of business sustained a death blow in June at the hands of the US Supreme Court [ZF Automotive US, Inc. v. Luxshare, Ltd., 142 S.Ct. 2078]. But do not despair! I’m here to boost your spirits and maybe your revenue stream. (And to entertain the rest of you, as always). As most of you know by now, in the ZF case the Court held that neither of two different types of international arbitration tribunals qualifies as “foreign or international tribunal” under Section 1782, and that federal judicial assistance to gather evidence in the…
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Well, somebody in Arbitration World has to write about a subject other than Section 1782, so here we go…. The US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, after nearly 25 years of living on the dark side of international arbitration, seems prepared to confess its sins and seek redemption. It appears poised to recognize that the New York Convention provides the limited grounds for a US court to refuse recognition and enforcement of an international arbitration award made at a US arbitral seat, but that US domestic arbitration law (especially Chapter 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act) supplies the grounds for…
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… and to be able to talk about it. You can copy/paste this link into your browser, to open and read it. I tried it. It works. https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2022/2022onsc1900/2022onsc1900.html

I was bundled in my favorite leather coat last week, having an outdoor lunch and braving the late April snow flurries with an arbitrator friend, who began to tell me not about a case he had, but about a case he dreamed he had. It was a bad dream, he said, and it went something like this: “So in my dream I get appointed to chair what looks like a pretty simple non-payment case except that Claimant is a Company in Haiti, of all places, and the Respondent is like a Haitian government agency. And the really odd thing is…
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No I did not retire. And I didn’t have long Covid, or any Covid. I just had stuff to do. Mostly stuff I can’t tell you about. Confidentiality, tender egos, taciturn Tribunals, all that. It’s better to be quiet. But seriously, readers, if you really like this Blog and crave regular Blog posts with your morning coffee, just stop sending me arbitral appointments, or stop making motions in my pending cases, and then I will have enough time to do what I am meant to do, which is to entertain you. To make you smile. Which we all need to…
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