Topic: Arbitrator challenges

A panel at GAR Live Abu Dhabi examined the principle adopted by some institutions that sole arbitrators or tribunal chairs with the same nationality as one of the parties are presumed to be biased – and debated whether it should be overturned. 

29 January 2025

An ICSID annulment committee has upheld an award that ordered Venezuela to pay around US$9 billion to ConocoPhillips over the expropriation of three oil projects. 

23 January 2025

An Australian mining company has dislodged academic Richard Frimpong Oppong from hearing a claim against Ghana based on his failure to disclose his nomination to the country’s Supreme Court. 

21 January 2025

All three members of an ICSID tribunal hearing a claim brought by an affiliate of British bank HSBC against El Salvador have survived the state’s attempt to disqualify them. 

13 December 2024

An American academic’s vote in favour of criticism of Russian “aggression” in Ukraine and comments about sanctions made during a webinar weren’t sufficient at this stage to disqualify him from hearing an ICSID case relating to Ukrainian sanctions on Russian nationals, a newly published challenge decision confirms. 

29 October 2024

Leading Spanish arbitrator Juan Fernández-Armesto and a co-panellist have resigned from a fraught ICC dispute over the billion-dollar sale of a Brazilian pulp producer – saying they have been threatened with criminal prosecution by the respondent and its external lawyers. 

26 September 2024

A US court has allowed a British Virgin Islands entity to amend its challenge to a US$102 million JAMS award over a fleet of gas carriers to introduce allegations that key documents were fraudulently concealed during the arbitration.

11 September 2024

American academic Andrea Bjorklund has been disqualified from hearing a Ukrainian billionaire’s investment treaty claim against Russia because of a LinkedIn post in which she promoted a fundraising effort for Ukrainian soldiers.

21 August 2024

Leading French arbitrator Yves Derains has been disqualified from hearing a Chinese solar panel producer’s ICSID claim against Italy over an alleged issue conflict stemming from his role as arbitrator in an earlier case against the state.

21 August 2024

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court has refused to review a jurisdictional award from Crescent Petroleum’s US$32 billion arbitration against the National Iranian Oil Company, based on the disqualifications of France’s Laurent Aynès and Swiss arbitrator Charles Poncet from the tribunal.

19 July 2024