INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION 1/3LY
NEWS IN BRIEF 39
MARKET ACTIVITY
NEW LCIA RULES ENTER FORCE IN OCTOBER
FIRST COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION CENTRE FORMED IN SAUDI ARABIA The Council of Saudi Chambers, in consultation with the Kingdom’s justice, commerce and industry ministries, has formed the Saudi Centre for Commercial Arbitration. The Centre’s formation comes following the Saudi Arabian cabinet’s adoption of a resolution to establish a central arbitration institution which will operate under the auspices of the Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The centre will be empowered to exercise arbitration on commercial disputes both inside and outside Saudi Arabia.
The new rules take effect on 1 October 2014 and update the previous version of the centre’s rules which entered force in 1998. Notable changes include provisions on consolidation and on conduct of legal representatives and parties, as well as expanded provisions on emergency relief. The new rules are available on the LCIA website www.lcia.org.
INAUGURAL CONFERENCE OF QMUL INSTITUTE OF REGULATION AND ETHICS
EU PROVIDES RULES ON FUTURE HANDLING OF INVESTOR-STATE DISPUTES
The conference took place on 11 September 2014 at the Royal College of Surgeons of England and considered the need for additional prescriptions of ethical rules and codes for advocates conducting international arbitration, within the wider context of global regulatory developments.
The European Union has published rules on how disputes arising from investor-state agreements which it has negotiated should be handled. According to an EU press release, the regulation will help to ensure transparency... by foreseeing close consultations and information-sharing between the [European] Commission, member states and the European Parliament.
INCREASED ICSID ENERGY CHARTER TREATY CLAIMS
CLYDE & CO OPENS IN SOUTH AFRICA
New statistics released by ICSID show that 22 per cent of new cases at the centre between 1 July 2013 and 30 June 2014 have been brought under the Energy Charter Treaty, compared with 2 per cent in the previous fiscal year. The main contributor to this rise has been Spain, following a series of reforms to the renewable energy sector.
Clyde & Co is now trading in South Africa, following the opening of offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg on 1 August 2014. This brings the firm’s total number of offices in Africa to four, alongside Dar es Salaam and Tripoli. The new offices will initially focus on dispute resolution across the firm’s core sectors of insurance, trade, aviation, natural resources, transportation and infrastructure.
BVI ARBITRATION ACT TO COME INTO FORCE 1 OCTOBER 2014
The British Virgin Islands’ government has announced that the Arbitration Act 2013 will come into force on 1 October 2014; at the same time as the BVI IAC Arbitration Rules 2014. The legislation is expected to generate alternative dispute resolution in the BVI and to position the jurisdiction for development as an international arbitration hub.
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