Imagine a complicated engineering and construction project that has lasted years and has already cost hundreds of millions of dollars. During the project, the contractor submitted dozens of claims for additional time and money – all of which the project’s owner has rejected. Amid mounting costs, claims from various subcontractors and suppliers boiling to the surface, and the threat of liquidated damages or even termination of the project, the contractor proceeds without receiving any relief from the owner. Although the parties have tried to resolve their disputes through negotiation and even mediation, they have not been able to reach an acceptable settlement. The contractor says it has incurred significant costs to perform the work and feels it is essentially funding the owner’s changes to the project. The owner, however, says the disputed issues are the contractor’s, not the owner’s risk. Accordingly, without a dispute resolution mechanism in place to resolve these disputes in real time, the costs continue to mount, and the prospect of a lengthy, expensive, and protracted arbitration or litigation looms.
Read moreArbitrating Intellectual Property Disputes: Lessons from Hong Kong and Singapore
Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is growing in popularity as a method of resolving intellectual property (IP) disputes across the globe. This is evident from the rising number of cases handled by the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre over the past few years, from 136 cases in 2017, to 155 in 2018, to 178 in 2019.[1] Outside of arbitration and mediation, domain name dispute resolution (DNDR) administrative processes are quickly becoming a preferred method to deal with trademark disputes involving online domain names, with 3,074 cases filed with WIPO in 2017, 3,452 in 2018 and 3,693 in 2019.[2]
Read moreThe first-ever digital 18th ICC Miami Conference on International Arbitration
The long-standing event, which this year was held online due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, has grown significantly since it launched 18 years ago and is an unmissable event in the international arbitration calendar, not only in Latin America, but in the US and Europe.
Read moreA Rare Occurrence: California Court Overturns Arbitrator’s Award
California’s statutory ban on post-employment covenants, which are enforceable in most other states, has bedeviled employers trying to protect confidential information and trade secrets. The state’s Business and Professions Code section 16600 provides that “every contract by which anyone is restrained from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind is to that extent void.” Due to this prohibition, employers in California have few options in terms of preventing post-employment competition and solicitation.
Read morePosture Away, You May Still Get Your Way
The Sixth Circuit recently reversed a decision from an Ohio federal court related to whether a party waived its arbitration rights through posturing correspondence written prior to the filing of litigation or arbitration. In Borror Property Management, LLC v. Oro Karric North, LLC (No. 2:19-cv-04375), the Sixth Circuit upheld the defendant’s contractual right to arbitration by concluding that no waiver of such right had occurred.
Read moreResolving conflict in the workplace
Conflict in life is unavoidable. It could be said that it is part of human nature.
However, conflict in the workplace can put an additional strain on what may already be a stress-filled situation. With upward of one-third of any given day spent in the workplace, it’s always beneficial to have a place of employment that you don’t dread going to each morning because of intraoffice strife – be it between a manager and an employee or between co-workers.
Read moreCAN MEDIATION MAKE DIVORCE EASIER ON CHILDREN
As difficult as a divorce can be for a married couple, it can be just as upsetting and confusing for a child. Parents tend to want what is best for their children and are apprehensive about the effects a potentially long, drawn out court battle can have on the family. One alternative to divorce that some families find success with is divorce mediation. Through mediation, you can often talk through each aspect of your divorce agreement without needing to take things to court or work with multiple lawyers.
Read morePay attention to your dispute resolution clauses
The importance of a clearly drafted dispute resolution clause should never be underestimated. It may have serious implications for how disputes arising under a contract are resolved and obligations enforced.
Each contract is different and requires a custom-made dispute resolution clause. To that end, the use of generic dispute resolution clauses “pulled from the Internet” is ill-advised.
A dispute resolution clause specifies how the parties wish their disputes arising under their contract to be resolved. It may specify one or more mechanisms for dispute resolution, including negotiation, mediation, arbitration or litigation.
Read moreThe 2021 ICC Arbitration Rules further improve the efficiency, flexibility and transparency of the arbitral process
The ICC is updating its 2017 Arbitration Rules, which will take effect on 1 January 2021 and will apply to cases registered as of that date (the “2021 Rules”).
The coronavirus pandemic and repeated lockdowns around the world have transformed the way international arbitrations are conducted today. The new changes to the ICC Arbitration Rules reflect those realities and, as noted by Alexis Mourre (the President of the ICC Court), further streamline the arbitration process to make it more efficient, flexible and transparent, for both large and small cases.
While the changes are generally limited in scope, they reflect the ICC’s desire to ensure that the ICC rules respond to the ever-changing business environment and meet the challenges of current times.
The key modifications are discussed below.
Read moreHalted trials cause financial and emotional woe, says Bar
Chair of the Bar Council Maura McNally SC says she has been “inundated” with complaints about halted trials.
The Bar Council chair has written to High Court president Ms Justice Mary Irvine to say that access to justice under level five restrictions has proven very difficult for barristers and their clients.
Read moreForeign investors harmed by trade measures may find relief by bringing investment arbitration claims →
A recent investor-state arbitration decision under the investment chapter of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA Chapter 11), Vento v. Mexico, demonstrates that foreign investors protected by an international investment agreement may submit arbitration claims that international trade regulatory and tariff measures breach the state's international obligations.
Read moreTop 3 Misconceptions Attorneys Have About Virtual Mediation
Although largely unknown to the average litigant, alternative dispute resolution providers across the country have offered virtual mediation services for upwards of a decade. The sudden increase in the popularity of these virtual services is, of course, due to COVID-19. The pandemic’s restrictions on travel and in-person gatherings have brought virtual mediation to the forefront of litigation.
Read moreKevin Schlosser Authors, “The Use of Private Judges: New World, New Wave?”
Our system of justice has certainly faced various challenges over the years, but no one can deny that the COVID-19 crisis has forced us to confront unprecedented obstacles―2020 has been a year no one will forget. In March, the entire state court system virtually shut down, except for cases deemed “essential.” While our administrative judges and the office of court administration have worked tirelessly to restore some semblance of normalcy, the challenges are formidable.
Q&A: Technology and the future of dispute resolution
FW discusses technology and the future of dispute resolution with Jon Chan, Alex Semertzides and Tom Jackson at FTI Consulting LLP, and Damian Taylor and Robert Worthington at Slaughter and May.
Read moreShould $3.2 Million Med-Mal Verdict Still be Capped if Arbitration Demand Letter Was Late?
A $3.2 million medical malpractice jury verdict that was slashed by a damages cap could get a new lease on life at the Fourth District Court of Appeal, which Tuesday considered whether the trial court was right to let a defendant off for being one day late in demanding arbitration.
Read moreQuotient Limited and Ortho Clinical Diagnostics Settle Arbitration and Sign Binding Letter of Intent Covering Patient Transfusion Diagnostics
JERSEY, Channel Islands, Sept. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Quotient Limited (NASDAQ:QTNT), headquartered in Eysins, Switzerland, today announced that the Company and Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (Ortho) have signed a binding letter of intent that confirms the termination of their former distribution agreement and related contracts and resolves all their disputes over the former distribution agreement. In addition, this ends the pending arbitration between the two companies and establishes a new distributor relationship focused solely on patient transfusion diagnostics.
Read moreAfrican Petroleum arbitration: who will foot legal bill of Banjul Omnia Strategy, Lucas Bastin and Edi M.O. Faal?
Valentina Ruiz Leotaud | April 26, 2020 | 12:55 pm Europe Gold
The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) ruled against Canadian company Edgewater Exploration (TSX-V: EDW) in its long-standing legal battle with Spain related to the Corcoesto gold project in the northwestern region of Galicia.
This week, UNCITRAL dismissed Edgewater’s pretensions to recover the $35 million it had invested in Corcoesto prior to the project being denied permission by the Galicia Regional Government, known as Xunta.
“The company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Corcoesto S.A. had commenced arbitration in 2016 under the Spain-Panama bilateral investment treaty and the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules (1976). Following a hearing in Paris, France during April 2018, the Tribunal rejected, unanimously, four jurisdictional objections by Spain but upheld, by majority in a 2 to 1 decision, one jurisdictional objection by Spain and dismissed the claim on that basis. The dissenting arbitrator opined that the majority’s decision erred in both law and fact and that the Tribunal did have jurisdiction and should have decided the merits of the claim,” the Vancouver-based miner said in a media statement.
Edgewater added that the recent dismissal of the entire claim is a disappointment and that the company and its subsidiary are “considering avenues for legal redress, including an annulment proceeding in the French courts.”
This is how it all started
After purchasing the Corcoesto project in 2010 and having its environmental impact declaration approved by the Xunta in 2012, Edgewater completed a series of drilling programs, and technical studies designed to advance the project, upgrade and expand the mineral resources, and evaluate the economics.
GOLD AT CORCOESTO WAS FIRST EXPLOITED BY THE ROMANS. IN THE LAST DECADES, SAGASTA GOLD, AURIFERA GALLEGA, RIO TINTO MINERA, RIO NARCEA GOLD MINES AND KINBAURI GOLD HAVE BEEN ACTIVE IN THE AREA
The plan forecasted a 9.9-year mine life and a total output of a little over 1 million ounces of gold. The heap-leach, open-pit operation would use cyanide to extract the yellow metal, something that caused alarm among environmentalist groups.
According to the EID, the operation’s annual waste production would be 2.1 million tonnes, of which 2 million tonnes would be floatation waste and 100,000 tonnes would be leaching. The estimated total of waste production was to be 17,080,751 tonnes during the mine’s working life.
Following the approval of the proposal, the Xunta went back on its decision and said it would not green-light the mining project unless the Canadian company fulfilled a number of environmental, technical and financial requirements not contemplated in its plan.
A legal battle ensued. In 2015, the Galicia government announced that the mining concession had expired and it would not be reopening the adjudication process, something that Edgewater considered illegal and a violation of international law.
Later on, the Galician Superior Tribunal of Justice ruled that the mine could not go forward because the project lacked financial and technical solvency, a decision that was backed by Spain’s Supreme Tribunal in 2019.
The latter decision was the one that led Edgewater to seek arbitration from UNCITRAL.
Arbitrary arbitration: Enforcing global awards is getting more complicated
For a country that wants to be a global arbitration hub, and which wants to raise its ranking on the contract-enforcement index, the news just keeps getting worse. Some weeks ago, the Supreme Court (SC) asked Devas Multimedia if it was willing to consider waiving off the interest component on the money owed to it—it won a $672 million global arbitration award—by the government space agency ISRO’s arm, Antrix Corporation.
Read moreMaybank IB downgrades MISC to 'hold' following unfavourable arbitration decision
To recap, the latest arbitration decision ruled that MISC is liable for the defects of FPS Gumusut-Kakap and will need to pay Sabah Shell Petroleum Co in excess of US$325mil, inclusive of interest and litigation costs, while the lease rate of the vessel will be reduced by 5% to 9%.
Read moreConservative justices embrace delegation to arbitration panels while questioning administrative process
1984 was a dramatic year for literature and law. George Orwell’s classic novel came of age, with its four Ministries of Peace, Love, Plenty, and Truth that brilliantly described their opposites. Less observed that year—except by administrative lawyers—was the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, the case that was to recalibrate judicial review of agency decisions. Also decided that same year was Southland Corp. v. Keating, a case preempting state arbitration laws that even administrative lawyers may have ignored.
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