Taking on the world

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

Al Tamimi & Company’s Hassan Arab, Rita Jaballah and Robert Maxwell Marsh examine the growing role of the UAE as a dispute resolution hub and the benefits of conducting dispute resolution in the increasingly comprehensive legal system

With the recent US Open and New York Fashion Week, New York City has once again attracted the eyes of the world and cemented its place as one of the ‘big four’ of tennis and fashion, respectively. But is there a ‘big four’ for global commercial law dispute resolution? The United Arab Emirates (UAE), in its concerted efforts over the past ten years to respond to the needs of the business community and match the highest international legal standards, is well on the way to placing Dubai, alongside New York, London and Singapore, as one of the international ‘big four’ of corporate dispute resolution. Continue reading “Taking on the world”

Small islands, big cases

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

Maples and Calder’s BVI managing partner, Arabella di Iorio, looks at complex commercial litigation in the British Virgin Islands

We all know the oft-repeated statistics: the hundreds of thousands of British Virgin Islands (BVI) incorporated companies, the hedge funds, the limited partnerships, the captive insurance companies. Those of us fortunate enough to live here also know that the BVI is among the most beautiful places on earth. But what is just as often forgotten is that the development of the BVI as a sophisticated offshore financial centre has gone hand in hand with its development as a jurisdiction able to handle the most complex international litigation.

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Jackson – Light at the end of the tunnel?

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

Enyo Law’s Peter Fitzpatrick, Annabel Thomas and Lauren Gash analyse how the Jackson reforms are bedding down a year after they came into force

Over a year has passed since the Jackson reforms came into force in April 2013 under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act. Like the Woolf reforms before them, the aim of the reforms was to cut the cost of civil litigation and streamline cases, reducing the use of court time and encouraging early settlement.

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The Disputes Dilemma

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 MARKET VIEW – INTRODUCTION 

Quinn Emanuel’s Ted Greeno weighs up the pros and cons of the different dispute resolution options and offers his insight into which option to pursue

It’s an old chestnut: which is better, litigation or arbitration? This is the third attempt I have had at it. In the first, I wrote an article singing the praises of arbitration over litigation. In the second, I debated for the motion: ‘This house considers that litigation is better than arbitration’, at a Commercial Litigators Forum event. On that occasion, my opponent (now partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan), Stephen Jagusch, used the entirety of his allotted time to quote my article back at me. So I approach this question with caution.

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The agony of choice

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

Bär & Karrer partners Daniel Hochstrasser and Nadja Jaisli Kull discuss the dos and don’ts to be considered when appointing arbitrators

For all of its emphasis on privacy, procedural flexibility and the reassurance that comes with a widely-adopted enforcement regime in the form of the New York Convention, parties remain attracted to international arbitration for a sometimes-overlooked, but equally important, factor: the ability to select their own decision-makers. In some ways, however, being spoilt for choice can make picking one’s candidate that much more difficult. Do you go for the expensive ‘name’ arbitrator? The Big Law associate tipped for great things but with comparatively few appointments to their name? Or, for counsel and arbitrators of a certain generation, the most unthinkable move of all – a woman?

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International relations

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

Omni Bridgeway’s Wieger Wielinga gives an overview of the Enforcement of Arbitration Awards against Sovereign entities in Practice

The last decade has shown a sharp increase in investment treaty-based and other international arbitration against sovereign nations, parastatals and other semi-sovereign entities. In the slipstream came an increase in the number of cases in which such sovereigns resisted complying with judgments and arbitration awards, including awards from the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Winning an arbitration award against a sovereign does not necessarily mean that recovery will be successful.

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Growing the Litigation Funding Market

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

Simon Dluzniak of Bentham IMF discusses Europe’s litigation funding market and compares it with the more mature Australian market the funder has come from

The third-party litigation funding market in this jurisdiction is, relative to Australia, still in its infancy. Hence it is incumbent upon the various stakeholders within the industry to continue to create awareness of the benefits of litigation funding in assisting and shaping its growth. After what appears to have been a fairly positive start, third-party funding (TPF) appears to have suffered a backlash of sorts as a result of a spate of so-called ‘setbacks’, most notably the loss of high-profile funded cases (for example, the Excalibur case) and the collapse of a well-known funder (Argentum).

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Pick your battles

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 THIRD-PARTY FUNDING 

London’s litigation funders are turning their attention to international arbitration. Can this deliver their breakthrough?

No sooner had Excalibur begun to drift from memory than another setback befell the litigation funding industry: the decision in August of the RSM v Saint Lucia majority to award security for costs on account of an unnamed funder’s involvement in the case, the first time such an order had been issued in the context of investment arbitration.

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Neutral territory

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

Lalive’s Marc Henzelin and Sandrine Giroud examine the key facts on the enforcement of foreign judgments in Switzerland

Ranked among the top five financial centres in the world and top of the Global Innovation Index 2014, with postcard landscapes and a tradition of discretion and stability, Switzerland remains a top destination for companies and wealthy individuals alike to bring their business and wealth. It is therefore unsurprising that enforcement of foreign judgments against assets held in Switzerland is an issue that comes up regularly in the day-to-day practice of international litigators.

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What’s in store for London’s Commercial Court?

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

White & Case’s head of litigation, John Reynolds, looks at what impact the development of other countries’ specialist commercial courts will have on the future of London as a centre for international dispute resolution

Despite relentless competition, most notably from New York, the choice of English governing law dominates the international contracts market. So says a recent article from the July/August issue of Legal Business with the benefit of opinion from partners at a number of large international firms (including White & Case’s own David Goldberg).

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