Recent decades have witnessed an upsurge in the imposition of international sanctions in various regions of the world. Time and again, we hear sanctions impinge on the practice of international commercial arbitration and can significantly interfere with the smooth functioning of arbitral proceedings in various ways. Sanctions also pose unique challenges for award creditors seeking […]
In April 2022 the High Court of England and Wales enforced an arbitral award rendered against a British company in Russia under the rules of a Russian arbitral institution. In January 2022, the Arbitration Centre at the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) completed arbitration of a dispute arising from an international sale agreement […]
The district court of the Hague has ruled against the former majority shareholders of OJSC Yukos Oil Company seeking to enforce Energy Charter Treaty arbitration awards of over US$50 billion. At the end of October this year, the court lifted the attachment the shareholders had previously secured over two Russian vodka trademarks, Moskovskaya and Stolichnaya. […]
On 10 December 2019, the Plenum of the Russian Supreme Court adopted the Resolution on the fulfillment by Russian courts of the assistance and control functions in respect of internal arbitration and international commercial arbitration. The Supreme Court revised the initial draft due to several recommendations. In particular, this document now contains essential rules with […]
On 28 February 2018, Ukraine’s state-owned gas entity, Naftogaz, secured an award of US$4.67 billion against Gazprom –which required Gazprom only to make a payment of US$2.56 billion on account of certain residual payments owed by Naftogaz – following a lengthy dispute between the parties concerning the supply and transit of Russian gas to consumers […]
After many years of discussions and active work of various working groups and Ukrainian Parliament, in the end of 2017 Ukraine has finally reformed its arbitration-related procedural legislation. Now the arbitration users may seek Ukrainian courts’ assistance in obtaining interim measures, preserving and collecting evidence necessary for arbitral proceedings, which remained practically impossible prior to […]
The Swedish Supreme Court recently put an end to Kazakhstan’s attempts to set aside the award rendered by SCC tribunal in favour of Anatolie and Gabriel Stati, Ascom Group SA and Terra Tar Trans Trading (“ASCOM” or the “Claimant”). The Supreme Court rejected the claims, declaring that Kazakhstan provided insufficient evidence to support their fraud allegations. Nevertheless, the […]
On 2 October 2017, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation refused to recognise and enforce an arbitration award issued in favour of Italian manufacturer SPIG by a tribunal under the Rules of the Arbitration Institution of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (the “SCC“) against indirectly state-owned Russian company Promkontroller. This decision marks the end […]
On 2 October 2017, a Texas federal judge confirmed a $140+ million award issued by a tribunal under the Rules of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce in favour of Carpatsky Petroleum Corporation (“CPC“) against the Ukrainian oil company, OJSC Ukrnafta. The Texas ruling marks the important end of an award battle […]
Russian courts have found themselves in a very controversial position regarding the enforcement of international arbitral awards. It turns out that the courts have enforced two arbitral awards in a dispute between the same parties on the same matter, something which called the res judicata principle into question. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation […]
In a recent judgment (27 January 2017), the Court of the Southern District of New York ordered state enterprise Moldovagaz S.A and the Republic of Moldova to pay USD 27 million to Gater Assets Limited. The judgment raises certain issues regarding the state’s liability for state-owned enterprises’ commercial activities. Given that the Government of Moldova has never been party […]
On 29 November 2016 the Paris Court of Appeal (the Court) decided to uphold the arbitration award in the long-lasting dispute between Russian oil firm PJSC Tatneft (the Tatneft) and Ukraine. In this case, Ukraine unsuccessfully tried to set aside the $112m investment treaty awards in favour of Tatneft. The main issue in the case was […]
In an earlier post the CIS Arbitration Forum reported on three investment treaty claims which have been initiated this year against Ukraine in the gas sector. In one of them a UK-based energy company, JKX Oil & Gas, and its Dutch and Ukrainian subsidiaries, Poltava Gas B.V. and JV Poltava Petroleum Company, obtained the first ever emergency arbitration award against […]
In September 2015 the UNCITRAL Working Group II (Arbitration and Conciliation) continued its work on formulating a legal framework on the enforcement of settlement agreements, including a convention, model provisions or guidance texts. Currently, parties can request arbitral tribunals to record their settlement agreements as consent awards, ie an arbitral award on terms agreed upon by the […]
The recent decision of the Russian Supreme Court in the case of Geotrest LLC v Gazprom Invest Vostok LLC and an earlier decision of the Constitutional Court indicate a significant change in the approach of Russian courts to the so-called “pocket arbitration courts”. These decisions contradict the previous practice and will most likely lead to significant […]
In a recent decision the Supreme Commercial Court of the Russian Federation found that a notice of arbitration proceedings to the parent company’s general counsel was proper in the context of the facts of the case. The decision has also raised discussions about other related issues: first, in which cases could such notice be improper and […]
This week a Russian cassation instance court suggested that foreign laws permitting certain disputes to be referred to arbitration should be respected. This should be the case even if under Russian law similar Russia-related disputes are not arbitrable. Apparently some restrictions on arbitrability have only limited effect. The case before the court concerned enforcement of an […]
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