Preface

Welcome to The Arbitration Review of the Americas 2025, one of Global Arbitration Review’s annual, yearbook-style reviews. For anyone new, Global Arbitration Review is the online home for international arbitration specialists everywhere. We tell them all they need to know about everything that matters in their chosen professional niche. 

Throughout the year, we give our readers pitch-perfect news (sign up for the email on our homepage!), regular surveys and features, convene the liveliest events (under our GAR Live banner), and curate various time-saving databases and know-how sections, including the only arbitrator research tool built on real, behind-the-scenes research, now tied to our database of arbitral awards.

In addition, assisted by external contributors, we curate a set of online regional reviews that go deeper into local developments than the exigencies of journalism allow. The Arbitration Review of the Americas, which you are reading, is one.

It contains insight and thought leadership inspired by recent events in the region from numerous pre-eminent practitioners. The 11 chapters they’ve written represent an invaluable retrospective on the year just gone in North and Latin America and what the future may hold. All contributors are vetted for their standing and knowledge before being invited to take part. 

This edition covers Canada, Mexico, Panama and Peru, and has various overviews, including: a great piece about concurrent delay; another on the various ways inflation complicates cases, which is especially relevant in Latin American currently; and further signs that international arbitration is ‘taking off’ for aviation clients. We also have a fascinating piece on whether evidence obtained through hacking is ever admissible before a tribunal. This question has been a particular feature of some Brazilian disputes.

As so often with these reviews, a close reading yields many nuggets. For this reader, on this occasion, they included that:

• Brazil’s CAM-CCBC has introduced an extra layer of disclosure to inoculate against potential arbitrator conflicts of interest;
• JAMs has released annual figures for international arbitrations – for the second year;
• a new Mexican law may cause problems in arbitrations featuring state-owned entities such as Pemex and CFE, or not – it remains to be seen; and
• a worrisome ruling from Peru may not be – quite – as worrisome as it at first appears, especially if readers follow our authors’ advice.

There is also a truly excellent recap of recent arbitration case law from Canada.

I wish you an enjoyable read. If you have any suggestions for a future edition, or want to take part in this annual project, my colleagues and I would love to hear from you. Please write to [email protected].

David Samuels 
Publisher
July 2024