Document production is one of the most controversial yet essential steps in international arbitration. Since cases are generally decided based on documents rather than oral testimony, document production can be a powerful tool for discovering evidentiary material crucial to winning an arbitration.[1] It is not surprising that arbitral proceedings commonly include a document production phase. […]
France Arbitration
French Court of Appeal Rules on Parties’ Waiver in ICC Arbitration
The French Court of Appeal has recently outlined the scope of parties’ waiver in arbitration. In Antrix Corp Ltd v. Devas Multimedia P. Ltd, the International Commercial Chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal held that Antrix did not waive its right to rely on a procedural irregularity, raised before the ICC International Court of […]
Enforcement of a Foreign ICC Arbitration Award in France Despite Set-Aside Judgements in West Africa
On 11 January 2022, the Paris Court of Appeal agreed to enforce a contract-based ICC arbitration award, despite the final award being previously set aside by the domestic courts of the seat of arbitration, and the underlying contract also being annulled by a foreign court. While this result may be surprising in many jurisdictions, the […]
Revision of Arbitration Awards under French Law
Under French law, pursuant to the doctrine of functus officio, once the arbitral tribunal has rendered its award, it cannot re-examine it.[1] There is no possibility for the French courts to remit the matter to the arbitral tribunal in case an award is annulled. Accordingly, the parties can only start new arbitration proceedings on the […]
Demurrage Claims in International Arbitration
International arbitrations in the field of shipping and sales often include demurrage claims (“surestaries” in French) which constitute, using the expression of Professor Debattista, “the staple diet of shipping lawyers the world over”.[1] Although it is rarely defined in charterparties or sale contracts which usually provide for its rate only, the Baltic Code (2020) defines […]
Rome I, Rome II, Applicable Law and International Arbitration
The relevance of the Rome I and Rome II Regulations for determining the law applicable to the merits of an international arbitration is a hotly-debated issue. Within the European Union (“EU”), Regulation (EC) No. 593/2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (“Rome I”)[1] and Regulation (EC) No. 864/2007 on the law applicable to non-contractual […]
Does an Arbitration Clause Survive the Termination of a Contract?
An arbitration clause in a contract is generally regarded as an autonomous agreement that may survive the termination of the contract that contains it. This presumption is often referred as “separability” or the “doctrine of separability”, according to which an arbitration clause is a “separate contract” whose validity and existence are independent from the substantive […]
Aceris Law’s Client Succeeds in ICC Arbitration under French Law in the Aviation Industry
Aceris Law is pleased to announce that it has assisted another client in winning another ICC arbitration, this time in the aviation industry. While identifying details of the award remain confidential, the dispute, which was subject to French law, concerned remuneration of the work of a third-party consultant who had assisted in the successful sale […]
COVID-19 and Construction Disputes: Claims for Time and Money
The spread of COVID-19, also known as coronavirus, which was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020, has had a significant, in some cases disastrous, impact on virtually all areas of business globally. The construction industry is no exception. With a number of countries declaring a state of emergency […]
