A recent judgment of the Queensland Court of Appeal provides a further example of the pro-enforcement stance adopted by Australian courts in relation to arbitration agreements. Read more

The LCAM-HSF survey on compulsory mediation closes for responses this Friday (11 March). Users of mediation, litigation and/or arbitration are invited to complete the short survey online here. We look forward to sharing the results and insights from the survey in due course. Read more

Following the success of the 2020 LCAM-HSF Mediation in Arbitration survey, we are delighted to announce that Herbert Smith Freehills is again joining with the London Chamber of Arbitration and Mediation to conduct a new study on attitudes to compulsory mediation in litigation and arbitration. Read more

After rejoining the ICSID Convention in June 2021, Ecuador has made a further contribution to the growth of international arbitration within its borders. On August 18, 2021, President Guillermo Lasso issued Executive Decree No. 165-2021, introducing the Regulations to the Arbitration and Mediation Act (the “Regulations”). Ecuador’s Arbitration and Mediation Act was originally enacted in … Read more

On 15 June 2021, the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes released its latest working paper as part of its Rules Amendment Project. In addition to proposing changes to the ICSID Convention and ICSID Additional Facility arbitration and conciliation, as covered in our earlier blog post, Working Paper 5 also refines the proposed … Read more

On Sunday, 20 June 2021, the Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC) launched its new International Arbitration Rules for public comment following extensive consultations with an international External Advisory Committee for the Revision of the AIAC Arbitration Rules (including Peter Godwin, Partner, HSF Kuala Lumpur). A copy of the draft rules can be found here. The … Read more

From 28 June 2021, Singapore will permit third-party funding of domestic arbitration proceedings, proceedings in the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC) and related mediation proceedings. Before this, Singapore permitted third-party funding for international arbitration proceedings and related court and mediation proceedings only (as reported in our blog post of January 2017). In making these changes, … Read more

Herbert Smith Freehills has secured an important victory in Hong Kong proceedings with far-reaching consequences for arbitration disputes around the world. Many commercial contracts contain “escalation clauses” requiring parties to take certain steps before formal arbitration begins – such as a requirement to “negotiate in good faith” before starting arbitration. Previously, failure to comply with … Read more