The enforcement of an ICSID investment arbitration award in the United Kingdom can be a complex matter, especially when doing so would arguably violate EU law. In January 2017, the UK High Court delivered a judgement to stay enforcement proceedings of the final ICSID award in the case of Ioan Micula and others v Romania, […]
S SpA v. T GmbH, Oberster Gerichtshof, Case No. 180Cg1/15v, 23 June 2015
This case, resulting from a partial award rendered in a VIAC commercial arbitration, concerns the formal requirements of the validity of an arbitration agreement under Austrian law. The facts are as follows: a German consultant signed a contract for service with S SpA, an Italian company, for the sale of heat exchangers. This contract was […]
Sales Representative (Iraq) v. Manufacturer (France), ICC Case No. 16684, Final Award (2012)
This ICC arbitral award concerns the notion of estoppel and a Representation Agreement between the parties, and whether a contract was valid and enforceable despite a United Nations embargo, with respect to a contract under Swiss law. While the contract was being performed, an Iraq embargo was ordered by the United Nations following the invasion […]
SAUR INTERNATIONAL SA V. REPUBLIC OF ARGENTINA (ICSID CASE NO. ARB/04/4)
The Claimant in this case was a subsidiary of Société d’Aménagement Urbain et Rural, S.A., specializing in water production, water treatment, water distribution and sanitization. The Claimant had participated and won a bid by the Province of Mendoza to privatize the Argentinian company Obras Sanitarias Mendoza (“OSM”). OSM and the Province then signed a concession […]
FIRST OPTIONS OF CHICAGO, INC. v. KAPLAN: Arbitrating the Question of Arbitrability U.S Supreme Court (1995)
This dispute arose out of a “workout” agreement, embodied in four separate documents, which governed the “working out” of debts to First Options that MKI incurred as a result of the October 1987 stock market crash. In 1989, after entering into the agreement, MKI lost an additional USD 1.5 million. First Options then took control […]