Insights

Washington – June 6, 2024: Crowell & Moring earned 78 rankings for 67 lawyers, as well as 41 national and statewide practice area rankings, in the Chambers USA 2024 guide. The rankings are driven by independent interviews of clients and lawyers at peer firms.

Washington – August 17, 2023: The 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized 47 firm lawyers as "Best Lawyers" and 41 lawyers as “Ones to Watch.”

In February 2024, the International Bar Association (“IBA”) released its most recent version of the IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration (“2024 IBA Guidelines”). In close succession, the United States Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari for review of an Eleventh Circuit decision upholding arbitrator impartiality. These two events underscore the importance of arbitrator impartiality and disclosure of even potential conflicts of interest.

The Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (SCCA) has published the second edition of its arbitration rules, which came into effect on May 1, 2023 and applies to all arbitrations commenced on or after that date. As compared to the 2018 rules, these amendments are aimed at making the SCCA more attractive to a variety of business sectors. The new rules are the fruit of two years of consultation with industry experts, all in an effort to meet the highest standards in international arbitration. Some of the noteworthy amendments include the establishment of the SCCA Court, the removal of references to Sharia law, and new regulations regarding consolidation, cybersecurity, joinder, and emergency protective measures.

The past two years have seen substantial updates to procedural rules governing the American Arbitration Association’s International Centre for Dispute Resolution (AAA-ICDR), as well as institutional efforts to increase efficiency, transparency and diversity.  

On 21 March 2022, the Members States to the ICSID Convention approved a long-awaited update to the ICSID Rules and Regulations for resolving international investment disputes. This is the first amendment to the ICSID Rules since 2006, and the most extensive modernization of ICSID procedures in the Centre’s history. The updated rules are the outcome of six working papers over 5 years of collaboration with State officials, legal counsel, adjudicators, businesses representatives, and civil society.

The ILI invites you to attend a 75-minute lunch-time webinar by leading practitioners in the investment arbitration field on the recent developments in the reform at ICSID and before the UNCITRAL Working Group III (WG III). As announced by ICSID on January 20, ICSID submitted resolutions on the amended ICSID rules to the Administrative Council—ICSID’s governing body—for a vote of approval by March 21 with the new rules coming into effect on July 1, 2022.

The World Arbitration Update (WAU) will update the global community on key and novel topics of investment and international commercial arbitration, and public international law in a decentralized forum. The first edition of WAU is being held virtually linking different regions by video conference during a five-day period from 11 to 15 October 2021. During these five days, there will be 15 panels and networking virtual events including:

In recent years, the ISDS system has received increasing public scrutiny, with criticism received from many corners, including State regulators, legislators, environmentalists, commentators, and even investment arbitration practitioners and arbitrators. Aside from the discussion on ISDS reform triggered by such criticism, this Roundtable will take a step back and will first analyze whether the ISDS system is actually solving any of the problems it was initially designed to address and – if it is failing to do so – what can be done to improve the system to ensure that the most basic problems are solved.