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Mealey's International Arbitration

  • February 23, 2026

    Changes To Hong Kong Tribunal Tainted $5.7M Attorney Fee Award, Court Told

    LOS ANGELES — A Dutch company based in California and two California citizens on Feb. 20 filed a motion in California federal court for reconsideration of an order confirming a Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) award against them worth more than $5.7 million, mostly comprising attorney fees in addition to arbitration costs, writing that the arbitration was flawed due to a new law that forced two of their counsel to resign and rendered HKIAC “incapable of impartial administration.”

  • February 23, 2026

    High Court Won’t Review Italian Company’s Claims Over Improper Preclusion

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 23 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by an Italian energy company that argued that a New York state court improperly found that it was precluded from bringing claims in litigation due to the res judicata effect of an earlier arbitration award in a separate dispute between its subsidiary and affiliates of another energy company relating to the parties’ agreement for the handling and sale of liquid natural gas (LNG).

  • February 23, 2026

    English Panel Says Nigeria Can’t Obtain Attorney Fees From Litigation Funder Yet

    LONDON — An English appellate panel dismissed the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s appeal of a lower court’s order staying Nigeria’s application for a 20 million British pounds cost order, out of 44.2 million pounds in attorney fees allegedly due, against litigation funders that paid for a defunct Irish-owned engineering company’s unsuccessful litigation against Nigeria to enforce an arbitral award worth more than $11 billion, which was later set aside due to fraud, writing that a more detailed costs assessment is needed.

  • February 20, 2026

    Oklahoma Law Bars Arbitration Of Storm Damage Insurance Dispute, Judge Says

    OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma federal judge denied a group of insurers’ motion to compel arbitration of a dispute over an insured’s claim for storm damage to a commercial property under the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention), opining that Oklahoma state law reverse-preempts the convention and bars arbitration of this type of insurance dispute.

  • February 19, 2026

    Tribunal Bifurcates Oil Investors’ Claims Over Dutch Gas Tremor Levies

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Feb. 18 published a tribunal’s order granting a Belgian oil company’s request to bifurcate its arbitration against the Kingdom of the Netherlands over the termination of drilling at a Dutch oilfield into a first phase on liability and a second phase on damages, which the claimant said will require evaluating 3.96 billion euros of payments ordered to resolve 27,000 complaints of gas production-linked tremors.

  • February 19, 2026

    Magistrate Recommends Confirming $157K Attorney Fees Award In Insurer’s Favor

    ORLANDO, Fla. — A Florida federal magistrate judge on Feb. 18 issued a report and recommendation that the court confirm a JAMS arbitral award worth more than $211,000, comprising arbitration costs and $157,000 in attorney fees incurred by insurers in an ad hoc arbitration in which an insured business’s claim for underpayment was dismissed after it failed to appear at the arbitration hearing.

  • February 18, 2026

    Environmental Group Can’t Participate In Refinery Investors’ EU Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Feb. 17 published a tribunal’s order denying an environmental group’s application to file a written submission on the merits of three pending arbitrations brought by a British oil refinery company and its subsidiaries against the European Union, the Kingdom of Denmark and the Federal Republic of Germany for allegedly ordering them to pay more than 175.5 million euros to mitigate the “energy crisis” caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

  • February 13, 2026

    D.C. Circuit Says Jurisdiction Over Russia Proper In Crimean Expropriation Cases

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 13 issued a consolidated affirmance of two cases in which federal judges found jurisdiction over petitions to confirm arbitral awards collectively worth more than $252 million in favor of investors whose assets in the Crimean peninsula were found by separate tribunals to have been expropriated in 2014 by the Russian Federation in breach of a bilateral investment treaty (BIT).

  • February 13, 2026

    Judge Finds Jurisdiction Over $37M Roads Dispute Award Against Guatemala

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Feb. 10 denied the Republic of Guatemala’s motion to dismiss a petition to confirm an arbitral award worth more than $37 million against it for terminating a road construction contract and rebuffed Guatemala’s challenges to jurisdiction, writing that the “purpose and structure” of international arbitration conventions and their implementing statutes establishes that they apply to U.S. enforcement of arbitral awards for foreign disputes against foreign sovereigns.

  • February 12, 2026

    Venezuela Auction Judge Denies Special Master’s Fee Allocation Request

    WILMINGTON, Del. — The federal judge overseeing a $5.8 billion auction in Delaware federal court of oil assets belonging to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its affiliates to satisfy confirmed arbitral awards and bond debts denied a request by the court-appointed special master to re-allocate more than $3 million in attorney fees he has incurred defending against a motion to disqualify himself so that the fees are paid by the movants.

  • February 11, 2026

    Assignee Of Multiple ICSID Awards Defends Enforcement Rights Against Spain

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An investment entity filed a brief in District of Columbia federal court defending against the Kingdom of Spain’s relatively new argument challenging enforcement of three International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral awards against it collectively worth more than 90 million euros, which Spain says can be enforced only by the original party to the arbitration.

  • February 10, 2026

    Tribunal Won’t Suspend Mexican Investors’ NAFTA Claim Despite Negotiations

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Feb. 9 published a tribunal’s order denying two American entities’ request for suspension of their arbitration against the United Mexican States for harming their interest in debt securities worth more than $219 million in violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), rejecting their argument that the Mexican president is willing to negotiate because Mexico opposed the suspension.

  • February 10, 2026

    5th Circuit Won’t Rehear Insurers’ Bid To Arbitrate Hurricane Insurance Dispute

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 9 denied a group of domestic insurers’ petition for en banc rehearing of its ruling affirming that state law prohibits arbitration of insurance disputes over Louisiana hurricane damage like the one they were involved in and had said should be arbitrated pursuant to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention).

  • February 10, 2026

    Mining Company Seeks Annulment Of No-Damages ICSID Award Against Colombia

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Feb. 9 published a Canadian precious metals exploration company’s application for annulment of a no-damages award in its dispute against the Republic of Colombia, citing “inconsistency” in the award because a split tribunal awarded it no damages after a different majority of the split tribunal found Colombia caused the company damages.

  • February 09, 2026

    Tribunal Dismisses Panama’s Request To Bifurcate Gold And Copper Mining Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Feb. 6 published a tribunal’s decision denying the Republic of Panama’s request to bifurcate a $400 million arbitration claim brought against it by a Canadian mining company that says Panama retroactively canceled its gold and copper mining concessions, finding both that Panama’s jurisdictional objections are intertwined with the merits and that the merits phase cannot be bifurcated because the merits are intertwined with potential damages.

  • February 05, 2026

    5th Circuit Affirms Another Denial Of Insurers’ Bid To Arbitrate Hurricane Claims

    NEW ORLEANS — In the latest of multiple rulings in which the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has reversed course from its prior precedent and proceeded to bar arbitration of Louisiana hurricane insurance disputes following new Louisiana Supreme Court precedent, a panel on Feb. 4 issued a per curiam unpublished opinion affirming the vacatur of a previous order compelling arbitration of insurance and bad faith claims arising out of hurricane damage to a hotel.

  • February 04, 2026

    Judge Compels Arbitration In Dubai After Previous Arbitration Center’s Abolition

    NEW ORLEANS — On remand from the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a Louisiana federal judge compelled arbitration of a $1.3 million dispute over a Saudi oil and gas project at the Dubai International Arbitration Center (DIAC), rebuffing the parties’ competing arguments for arbitration in London or Saudi Arabia, which each side maintained would be a better option after the abolition of the Dubai arbitration institution at which they had previously agreed to arbitrate.

  • January 30, 2026

    U.S. Issues License Allowing Transactions For ‘Venezuela-Origin Oil’

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) on Jan. 29 issued a general license authorizing transactions for sales of oil and oil-related assets belonging to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its affiliates, which is required due to U.S. sanctions against Venezuela, representing a key step for pending litigation in Delaware federal court where a $5.8 billion bid for Venezuela’s holdings in CITGO Petroleum Corp. was approved, pending appeal before the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • January 28, 2026

    5th Circuit: No Jurisdiction Over Insurers’ Bid To Arbitrate Hurricane Claims

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 27 ruled that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction over an appeal brought by domestic insurers against a Louisiana political subdivision that brought claims for hurricane insurance coverage, citing a Louisiana Supreme Court ruling arising out of certified questions from the same case and recent Fifth Circuit precedents holding that state law prohibits arbitration of such disputes.

  • January 26, 2026

    Judge Approves Interlocutory Appeal Of Arbitrability Of Sweepstakes Website Dispute

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge certified an interlocutory appeal as to the arbitrability of a consumer’s putative class suit for fraud against the Canadian operators of a “sweepstakes casino” website that she alleges is in fact an illegal gambling website, after the judge ruled the claims must be arbitrated pursuant to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention).

  • January 26, 2026

    Arbitrator’s ‘Inattention’ Doesn’t Doom $55M Tribunal Award, High Court Told

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Chinese citizen on Jan. 23 filed a brief opposing a petition for a writ of certiorari filed in the U.S. Supreme Court by a Chinese national who resides in California and is seeking review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling affirming the confirmation of a more than $55 million Chengdu Arbitration Commission (CAC) three-arbitrator tribunal’s award, writing in the brief that one arbitrator’s “inattention” doesn’t violate U.S. public policy.

  • January 05, 2026

    COMMENTARY: Battle Of The Arbitration Seats: Contrasting The 2025 English Arbitration Act Reform With France’s Reform Proposal

    By José Feris and Natalia Rodriguez Alvarez

  • January 22, 2026

    Award Against Poland Should Be Enforced Despite Annulment, Investor Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Cypriot investor on Jan. 22 filed an amended brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that its petition to enforce an arbitral award against the Republic of Poland worth more than $40 million was improperly dismissed based on a Swedish court’s annulment of the award under European Union law, writing that the court “abdicated its obligation to apply U.S. law and public policy.”

  • January 22, 2026

    Shipping Investor Seeks Attorney Fees For ‘Hidden’ Fraud Evidence In Arbitration

    NEW YORK — A shipping investor filed a motion in New York federal court for sanctions and an award of attorney fees against Reed Smith LLP, Greenberg Traurig LLP and an attorney at each firm, writing that they improperly sought confirmation of a JAMS award worth more than $102 million despite allegedly “knowing” that it “had been obtained through fraud” and that a judge vacated due to “false testimony.”

  • January 21, 2026

    Tribunal Won’t Order Netherlands To Cease Issuing Gas Tremor Levies

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) published a procedural order in an arbitration between a Belgian oil company and the Kingdom of the Netherlands over the termination of drilling at a Dutch oilfield, with the tribunal declining the oil company’s request that it order the Netherlands to stop issuing levies to citizens who complain of gas production-linked tremors near the oilfield, with the company saying the levies are erroneous and have already exceeded 3.96 billion euros.