The Latest Upload of the Yearbook Commercial Arbitration 2020 is Now Online!

A Message from Prof. Stephan Schill, General Editor ICCA Publications

This year’s second upload of the ICCA Yearbook is now available on KluwerArbitration.com. It features a total of 20 court decisions on the New York, Washington (ICSID) and Panama (Inter-American) Conventions, including four new decisions on the New York Convention from Korea as part of the update of Korean jurisprudence we commenced in 2018.

Here are some highlights from this upload.

First, take a look at the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia in Tampico – it is part of an update of three Colombian decisions on the New York Convention. The Court here sets out Colombia's pro-arbitration policy, and addresses issues surrounding possible conflicts of interest in a situation in which one of the arbitrators in an ICC arbitration had not disclosed that he was acting as counsel in an unrelated ICSID arbitration in which counsel for the claimant was one of the arbitrators. 

Second, the upload features a decision that has generated much interest already. The English Court of Appeal in Kabab discusses the issue of the applicable law to determine who is bound by an arbitration clause in a case in which the non-signatory defendant had acquired the original signatory. 

Finally, there are two decisions clarifying the competences of domestic courts faced with the recognition and enforcement of ICSID awards. In Eiser, the Federal Court of Australia explains that state immunity under Australian law cannot be pleaded as a defense to the recognition of ICID Awards under Art 53 of the ICSID Convention. In TECO Guatemala, the District of Columbia clarifies the conceptual foundations of the scope of review of ICSID awards by a US federal court, stating that it is the same as the scope of review of final state court judgments. 

Interested in further insights into the law and practice of arbitration in the countries reported in this upload? Take a look at the ICCA Handbook’s Country Reports for Australia, Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Korea, Russian Federation, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States.

While you’re here, you can also get to know the contributors to the Yearbook Commercial Arbitration and authors of ICCA Handbook National Reports right here on the ICCA website.