The case of C v D concerns the issue of whether or not an arbitral tribunal’s decision with respect to compliance with a pre-arbitral tier in a multi-tiered dispute resolution clause is final. The issue is significant and goes to the heart of one of the key...
A smart contract is self-executing code that follows pre-programmed rules, which are then verifiable on a blockchain. As such they are a misnomer. They are not smart, because they can only do what they are programmed to do. They are not so much a contract as a tool...
COVID-19 triggered dramatic changes in the way international arbitration is conducted, but which will remain? Our partner Amanda Lees, based in Singapore, recently shared her insights with The Legal 500 on the Covid-19...
Hourly fees for lawyers are the norm in Hong Kong. Regardless of the outcome of the case, clients usually pay for the time that lawyers spend working on their matters. On 30 June 2022, the government gazetted the Arbitration and Legal Practitioners Legislation...
Litigants at Hong Kong courts now can expect an earlier date to receive their judgments. To ensure that reserved judgments are handed down as expeditiously as is reasonably practicable, the judiciary issued a Practice Direction 36 on 20 May 2022 (“Practice...
This post is part of our series on Climate Change Disputes. Our earlier posts include: Climate Change Disputes 101: An Introduction, a post on Australia (currently, the second most popular jurisdiction for Climate Change Disputes), a post on China Mainland, and a...
“Whether procedural requirement[s]…ha[ve] been fulfilled is a question intrinsically suitable for determination by an arbitral tribunal, and is best decided by an arbitral tribunal in order to give effect to the parties’ presumed intention to achieve a quick,...
HKIAC Statistics: demonstrating the steady strength of Hong Kong as a seat for arbitration Early in the Year of the Tiger, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (“HKIAC”) released its Year of the Ox statistics for 2021. Their full report is available here,...
Hong Kong, Guangdong, and Macao have taken the next step to take the Greater Bay Area ("GBA") to the centre stage of international arbitration by jointly forming the Greater Bay Area International Arbitration Centre in Shenzhen (the "Centre"). The Centre is located in...
From 1 December 2021, a claimant can make an application for summary judgment in Hong Kong High Court and District Court cases, notwithstanding an allegation of fraud. What is summary judgment, and how summary is it anyway? In short, a summary judgment application...
While one would be forgiven for assuming that the doctrine of privity of contract would preclude a non-signatory from being bound by a dispute resolution process to which it had not subscribed, an arbitration clause may be binding on a third party by assignment,...
Security of Payment (“SOP”) legislation has been enacted in numerous jurisdictions around the world as a successful means of ensuring that construction industry participants are paid on time, disputes are resolved early, and contractors and sub-contractors maintain...
Aren’t these award ceremonies amazing ? When you get nowhere, and someone else wins, you think 'what a load of rubbish'. But when you actually win, you are on Cloud Nine – best award ever etc. Well, this was the best award ever. What made us stand out? I put it...
One topic that has received quite a lot of attention in the Courts over the past few years is how insolvency interacts with arbitration clauses. The question is: can insolvency steps proceed in Court on the basis of a debt which is disputed, where parties agreed to...
On 17 June 2021, Mimmie Chan J in the Hong Kong High Court handed down a judgment in what she termed a “highly unusual case”, W v AW [2021] HKCFI 1707, which illustrates the setting aside risks in running parallel arbitrations. In gist, Chan J held, in the context of...
Before we start the ‘inception’ style mental gymnastics, it may be best to take a deep breath. What are anti-suit injunctions? In most common law jurisdictions, anti-suit injunctions are a widely used tool to force a party to withdraw (or not commence) proceedings in...
We often see pre-arbitration steps in an arbitration clause. Typically, parties agree first to try to resolve the dispute by negotiation or mediation, failing which arbitration will follow - a standard "multi-tiered dispute resolution" clause. But what happens if...
I was very honoured to have been invited by Hong Kong’s Department of Justice and the Asian Academy of International Law (AAIL) to speak recently in several of their “Why Hong Kong?” seminars. These were designed to answer concerns about investing in Hong Kong in...
Queen Mary University of London and White & Case have just published the results of their 12th International Arbitration Survey. For those of you in the field, you’ll know that this is the preeminent empirical study on arbitration. As a Team, we have...
Our resident experts on experts have set out their top 10 tips for dealing with expert witnesses