Swiss Supreme Court upholds the request for revision of an arbitral award based on the subsequent discovery of circumstances that justified the removal of an arbitrator

In a recent decision published on 15 January 2021, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (“SFSC”) upheld a request for revision of an arbitral award of the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (“CAS”) regarding the Chinese swimmer Sun Yang on grounds of bias and lack of impartiality of the chairman of the CAS panel (case no. 4A_318/2021 (in French)).

Factual background

With its decision of February 28, 2020, the CAS imposed an eight-year ban on the Chinese swimmer Sun Yang for violation of doping rules. On June 15, 2020, Sun Yang filed an appeal against the CAS award with the SFSC. In the appeal, he raised doubts against the impartiality of the chairman of the CAS panel, Franco Frattini. In support thereof, Sun Yang submitted evidence according to which in 2018 and 2019, Franco Frattini had repeatedly published comments about the treatment of animals in China on his Twitter account, containing extreme anti-Chinese language.

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Switzerland: Revisions Of The Swiss International Arbitration Law

The International Arbitration Law of Switzerland is regulated under Chapter 12 of the Private International Law Act of 1987 ("PILA"). On 19 June 2020, the Swiss Parliament approved revisions to the PILA, which is expected to enter into force on 1 January 2021.1 The purpose of the revisions is to reflect the Swiss Federal Supreme Court's decisions, and to modernize and clarify the wording of some of its provisions.

The PILA still maintains its well-organized and flexible nature by keeping all of its core provisions, and aims to create a more user-friendly and accessible text to non-Swiss users. This Newsletter Article will address its main revisions.

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