WAU 2024, 4th Edition
SAVE THE DATE!
WAU China: May 15 and 16, 2024
WAU India, Middle East & Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and the Americas: May 20 through 23, 2024

WAU 2024, 4th Edition
SAVE THE DATE!
WAU China: May 15 and 16, 2024
WAU India, Middle East & Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and the Americas: May 20 through 23, 2024

WORLD ARBITRATION UPDATE DISCLAIMER – PRIVACY POLICY – TERMS OF USE

(Last update on September 2021)

I. PRIVACY POLICY

Xtrategy LLP (Xtrategy), owner of the World Arbitration Update (“WAU”) website, is concerned about privacy issues and wants you to be familiar with how we collect, use and disclose information. This Privacy Policy describes our practices in connection with information that we collect through the website operated by us from which you are accessing this Privacy Policy (the “Website”), through software applications made available by us for use on or through computers and mobile devices (“Apps”), through social media pages that we control from which you are accessing this Privacy Policy (collectively, our “Social Media Pages”) as well as through HTML-formatted email messages that we send to you that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, including the Websites, the Apps and our Social Media Pages, the “Services”).  This policy will also apply to our collection of information from you offline.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Personal Information We May Collect

Personal Information” is information that identifies you as an individual, including:

      • Name
      • Postal address (including billing and shipping addresses)
      • Telephone number
      • Email address
      • Profile picture
      • Social media account ID

If you submit any Personal Information relating to other people to us or to our service providers in connection with the Services, you represent that you have the authority to do so and to permit us to use the information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

How We May Collect Personal Information?

We and our service providers may collect Personal Information in a variety of ways, including:

    • Through the Services:  We may collect Personal Information through the Services, e.g., when you sign up for an event or inquire about information regarding the WAU.
    • From Other Sources:  We may receive your Personal Information from other sources, such as public databases; joint marketing partners; social media platforms; from people with whom you are colleagues or connected on social media platforms, as well as from other third parties.

How We May Use Personal Information?

We may use Personal Information:

    • To respond to your inquiries, fulfill your requests, and to send you newsletters.
    • To send administrative information to you, for example, information regarding the Services and changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.
    • To send you marketing communications that we believe may be of interest to you.
    • To facilitate social sharing functionality.
    • To conduct surveys on issues of interest to the arbitration community.
    • As we believe to be necessary or appropriate: (a) under applicable law, including laws outside your country of residence; (b) to comply with legal process; (c) to respond to requests from public and government authorities including public and government authorities outside your country of residence; (d) to enforce our terms and conditions; (e) to protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates; (f) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you or others; and (g) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.

How Personal Information May Be Disclosed

Your Personal Information may be disclosed:

    • To our third party service providers who provide services such as website hosting, data analysis, information technology and related infrastructure provision, customer service, catering, email delivery, auditing and other similar services.
    • To third parties to permit them to send you marketing communications, if you have opted in to such sharing.
    • To identify you to anyone to whom you send messages through the Services.
    • By you, on message boards, chat, profile pages and blogs and other services to which you are able to post information and materials.  Please note that any information you post or disclose through these services may become public information, and may be available to users of the Services and/or to the general public.  We urge you to be very careful when deciding to disclose your Personal Information, or any other information, on the Services.
    • As we believe to be necessary or appropriate: (a) under applicable law, including laws outside your country of residence; (b) to comply with legal process; (c) to respond to requests from public and government authorities including public and government authorities outside your country of residence; (d) to enforce our terms and conditions; (e) to protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates; (f) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you or others; and (g) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.

OTHER INFORMATION

Other Information We May Collect

Other Information” is any information that does not reveal your specific identity or does not directly relate to an individual, such as:

      • Browser and device information
      • App usage data
      • Information collected through cookies, pixel tags and other technologies
      • Demographic information and other information provided by you
      • Aggregated information

How We May Collect Other Information?

We and our third party service providers may collect Other Information in a variety of ways, including:

    • Through your browser or device:  Certain information is collected by most browsers or automatically through your device, such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer type (Windows or Macintosh), screen resolution, operating system name and version, device manufacturer and model, language, Internet browser type and version and the name and version of the Services  you are using.  We use this information to ensure that the Services function properly.
    • Through your use of an App:  When you download and use an App, we and our service providers may track and collect App usage data, such as the date and time the App on your device accesses our servers and what information and files have been downloaded to the App based on your device number.
    • Using cookies:  Cookies are pieces of information stored directly on the computer that you are using.  Cookies allow us to collect information such as browser type, time spent on the Services, pages visited, language preferences, and other anonymous traffic data.  We and our service providers use the information for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, display information more effectively, and to personalize your experience while using the Services, as well as for online tracking purposes.  We can recognize your computer to assist your use of the Services.  We also gather statistical information about the usage of the Services in order to continually improve the design and functionality, understand how the Services are used and to assist us with resolving questions regarding the Services.  Cookies further allow us to select which of our advertisements or offers are most likely to appeal to you and display them while you are on the Services.

If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to automatically decline cookies, or be given the choice of declining or accepting the transfer to your computer of a particular cookie (or cookies) from a particular site.  You may also wish to refer to http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html.  However, if you do not accept these cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of the Services. 

    • Using pixel tags andother similar technologies:  Pixel tags (also known as web beacons and clear GIFs) may be used in connection with some Services to, among other things, track the actions of users of the Services (including email recipients), measure the success of our marketing and compile statistics about usage of the Services and response rates.
    • Using Adobe Flash technology (including Flash Local Shared Objects (“Flash LSOs”)) and other similar technologies:  We or our service providers may use Flash LSOs and other technologies to, among other things, collect and store information about your use of the Services.  If you do not want Flash LSOs stored on your computer, you can adjust the settings of your Flash player to block Flash LSO storage using the tools contained in the Website Storage Settings Panel. You can also control Flash LSOs by going to the Global Storage Settings Paneland following the instructions (which may include instructions that explain, for example, how to delete existing Flash LSOs (referred to “information” on the Macromedia site), how to prevent Flash LSOs from being placed on your computer without your being asked, and (for Flash Player 8 and later) how to block Flash LSOs that are not being delivered by the operator of the page you are on at the time).  Please note that setting the Flash Player to restrict or limit acceptance of Flash LSOs may reduce or impede the functionality of some Flash applications, including, potentially, Flash applications used in connection with the Services or our online content.
    • IP Address:  Your “IP Address” is a number that is automatically assigned to the computer that you are using by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).  An IP Address may be identified and logged automatically in our server log files whenever a user accesses the Services, along with the time of the visit and the page(s) that were visited.  Collecting IP Addresses is standard practice and is done automatically by many websites, applications and other services.  We may use IP Addresses for purposes such as calculating usage levels of the Services, helping diagnose server problems, and administering the Services.
    • From you:  Information such as your location, as well as other information, such as your preferred means of communication, is collected when you voluntarily provide this information.  Unless combined with Personal Information, this information does not personally identify you or any other user of the Services.
    • By aggregating information:  Aggregated Personal Information does not personally identify you or any other user of the Services, (for example, we may aggregated Personal Information to calculate the percentage of our users who have a particular telephone area code).

How We May Use and Disclose Other Information

Please note that we may use and disclose Other Information for any purpose, except where we are required to do otherwise under applicable law.  If we are required to treat Other Information as Personal Information under applicable law, then we may use it as described in “How We May Collect Other Information” section above, as well as for all the purposes for which we use and disclose Personal Information. In some instances, we may combine Other Information with Personal Information (such as combining your name with your geographical location).  If we combine any Other Information with Personal Information, the combined information will be treated by us as Personal Information as long as it is combined.

THIRD PARTY SERVICES

This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any site or service to which the Services link.  The inclusion of a link on the Services does not imply endorsement of the linked site or service by us. Please note that we are not responsible for the collection, usage and disclosure policies and practices (including the data security practices) of other organizations, such as Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, RIM or any other app developer, app provider, social media platform provider, operating system provider, wireless service provider or device manufacturer, including any Personal Information you disclose to other organizations through or in connection with the Apps or our Social Media Pages.

SECURITY

We seek to use reasonable organizational, technical and administrative measures to protect Personal Information.  Unfortunately, no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure (for example, if you feel that the security of any account you might have with us has been compromised), please immediately notify us of the problem by contacting us in accordance with the “Contacting Us” section below.

CHOICES AND ACCESS

Your choices regarding our use and disclosure of your Personal Information

We give you many choices regarding our use and disclosure of your Personal Information for marketing purposes.  You may opt-out from:

    • Receiving electronic communications from us:  If you no longer want to receive marketing-related emails from us on a going-forward basis, you may opt-out of receiving these marketing-related emails by sending an email to wau@xtrategycenter.com with the word “UNSUBSRIBE” in the subject line.
    • Our sharing of your Personal Information with unaffiliated third parties for their direct marketing purposes:  If you would prefer that we do not share your Personal Information on a going-forward basis with unaffiliated third parties for their direct marketing purposes, you may opt-out of this sharing by sending an email to wau@xtrategycenter.com with the word “OPT-OUT” in the subject line.

We will try to comply with your request(s) as soon as reasonably practicable.  Please also note that if you do opt-out of receiving marketing-related emails from us, we may still send you important administrative messages, and you cannot opt-out from receiving administrative messages.

How you can access, change or suppress your Personal Information

If you would like to review, correct, update, suppress, or delete Personal Information that has been previously provided to us by you, you may contact us by writing to wau@xtrategycenter.com.

In your request, please make clear what Personal Information you would like to have changed, whether you would like to have your Personal Information that you have provided to us suppressed from our database or otherwise let us know what limitations you would like to put on our use of your Personal Information that you have provided to us.  For your protection, we may only implement requests with respect to the Personal Information associated with the particular email address that you use to send us your request, and we may need to verify your identity before implementing your request.  We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable.

Please note that we may need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes.  There may also be residual information that will remain within our databases and other records, which will not be removed.

RETENTION PERIOD

We will retain your Personal Information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

USE OF SERVICES BY MINORS

The Services are not directed to individuals under the age of thirteen (13), and we request that these individuals do not provide Personal Information through the Services.

CROSS-BORDER TRANSFER

The Services are controlled and operated by us from the United States, and are not intended to subject us to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country or territory other than that of the United States.  Your Personal Information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers, and by using the Services you consent to the transfer of information to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have different data protection rules than those of your country.

SENSITIVE INFORMATION

We ask that you not send us, and you not disclose, any sensitive Personal Information (e.g., social security numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, criminal background or trade union membership) on or through the Services or otherwise to us.

UPDATES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may change this Privacy Policy.  Please take a look at the “Last Updated” legend at the top of this page to see when this Privacy Policy was last revised.  Any changes to this Privacy Policy will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on the Services.  Your use of the Services following these changes means that you accept the revised Privacy Policy.

CONTACTING US

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email at wau@xtrategycenter.com

 

Please note that email communications are not always secure; so please do not include credit card information or sensitive information in your emails to us.

II. TERMS OF USE

1. Binding Agreement

DEFINITIONS

The following words with a first letter in capital are defined herein as follows:

Xtrategy”, “We” or “Our” means Xtrategy LLP.

Website” means World Arbtration Update (“WAU”) website available

at  https://worldarbitrationupdate.com/

 

You”, or “Your” or “User” means any person who navigates the Website and uses its Services, and who is legally committed by the present Terms.

Terms” refers collectively to the Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and Terms of Use defined hereafter.

Content” means all data, material, documents, news, photos, videos, publications, or any other information uploaded or provided to the Website by Users.

BEFORE USING THIS WEBSITE, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS CAREFULLY.

 

The present Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between any User of WAU Website and Xtrategy, owner of WAU’s Website, regarding the use of and access to the Website.

You may navigate the Website conditional upon Your acceptance without modification of the present Terms. Your use of the Website constitutes Your agreement to all Terms and supersedes any prior agreements. Should You not agree to these Terms, You may not use the Website nor its features.

Xtrategy’s performance of these Terms is subject to existing laws and legal process, and nothing contained therein is in derogation thereof.

These Terms apply to the Website and govern, without limitation, data collection and usage.

Users agree that no partnership, employment or agency relationship exists between them and Xtrategy as a result of these Terms or the use of the Website.

The Website, these Terms and all related documents are in English, and communications are mainly in English. However, Content may be posted in other languages.

2. Modification of these Terms

Xtrategy may revise these Terms at any time and from time to time in its sole discretion. The revised or amended Terms shall be effective upon posting. If you have subscribed to receive our newsletters and/or information about our events, you will be informed of any change and we may, as the case may be, require your consent to continue sending you emails.

The last update of these Terms has been made in September 2021

3. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is determined to be invalid or unenforceable in part or in whole pursuant to applicable law, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid and enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision, and the remainder of the Terms shall continue to be in effect.

4. Access Restriction

Use of the Website is not authorized in any jurisdiction that does not give full effect to the provisions of these Terms.

In the event a User fails to comply with these Terms, Xtrategy shall have the right to terminate such User’s access to the Website.

5. No Unlawful or Prohibited Use

Users warrant and agree that, while using the Website and the services, features and functionalities offered on or through the Website, they shall not, without limitation:

  1. Use the Website for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms;
  2. Use the Website in any manner which could damage, disable, overburden, or impair it or interfere with any other party’s use and enjoyment of the Website;
  3. Obtain or attempt to obtain any material or information through any means not intentionally made available or provided for through the Website;
  4. Make available in any way any Content that is unlawful, harmful, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, discriminatory, vulgar, obscene, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable, threatening or otherwise violating legal rights;
  5. Harm minors in any way;
  6. Impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent their affiliation with a person or entity;
  7. Forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any content transmitted through the website;
  8. Make available in any way any Content that Users do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships;
  9. Make available in any way any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party;
  10. Make available in any way any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, junk mail, spam or chain letters;
  11. Make available in any way any Content that contains software viruses, corrupted files or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
  12. Harvest or otherwise collect information about Users, including email addresses, without their consent;
  13. Violate any code of conduct or other guidelines which may be applicable for any particular communication service;
  14. Intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law;
  15. Download, copy or use personal data for commercial purposes or for advertising;

Users acknowledge that, upon discovering any violation, Xtrategy shall have the right, immediately and without prior notice, to remove any Content that violates these Terms or is otherwise objectionable.

Xtrategy further reserves the right to terminate access to the Website of any User who violates these Terms.

6. Intellectual Property

WAU Website is protected by intellectual property rights. All rights reserved.

Xtrategy owns without limitation:

  • All rights and interest in the Website;
  • All material including illustrations, graphics, videos, texts, software, codes, data and materials, and the design and construction of the Website;
  • All copyrights, trademark, patent, database, moral, and sui generis rights and other intellectual property and proprietary rights therein.

 

Your use of the Website does not grant You any rights on any of Xtrategy’s rights.

All names, company names, logos, service and/or trademarks mentioned, displayed, cited or otherwise indicated on the Website are the property of their respective owners.

Xtrategy claim ownership of the Content on the Website, except for the logos of cooperating entities, organizations, enterprises and reference links included therein.

By posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting Content You grant Xtrategy and the Website Users permission to download or transmit the Content, but not to distribute or display it on other websites or media, or to reproduce, edit, translate, reformat or publish said Content, unless expressly so authorized by the intellectual property rights holder.

Xtrategy respects the intellectual property rights of others, and require that Users do the same.

If You believe that Your work has been copied in a way that infringes Your intellectual property rights, please forward the following information via the “Contact us” link:

  • Your address, telephone number and email address;
  • A description of the protected work that You claim has been infringed;
  • A description of where the alleged infringing material is located;
  • A statement by You that You have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorised by You, the holder of the intellectual property rights, its agent, or by law;
  • An electronic or physical signature of the person authorised to act on behalf of the holder of the intellectual property rights; and
  • A statement by You that the above information is accurate and that You are the holder of the intellectual property rights or authorised to act on behalf of the holder of the intellectual property rights.

 

7. Restriction of Liability

Xtrategy only provides the infrastructure to host information regarding Users’ practice in international arbitration and has limited liability in its capacity as a hosting provider under US law.

In no event shall Xtrategy or any of its directors, officers, employees, agents, consultants, parents, affiliates, successors, assigns or service providers assume responsibility or be liable for any direct or indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including but not limited to for any computer virus, loss of profits, alleged loss of credibility or damage to personal image, use, data or other intangible losses, or any other inconvenience resulting from or in connection with the use of or the inability to use the Website, reliance on the Website, or the Content, materials and functions related thereto, or any other matter relating to this Website, including, without limitation, any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption or defect.

Users expressly understand and agree that Xtrategy shall in no way be liable to them under any circumstances. By agreeing to use the Website, Users agree to defend, indemnify and hold Xtrategy, its officers, directors and employees harmless from any and all claims, liabilities, costs and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising in any way from the use of the Website or through it.

The Website is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranty or condition of any kind, either express or implied. Without limitation of the foregoing Xtrategy specifically disclaims any and all warranties, including, but not limited to any warranties concerning the availability, accuracy, appropriateness, reliability, timeliness, usefulness, or other of the Website, including but not limited to the online services and web files, and the Content thereon, and any warranties of title, warranty of non-infringement, warranties or conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Xtrategy does not guarantee that the information and/or the material on its Website is free from software viruses or the like. Xtrategy assumes no responsibility or liability for direct, indirect or consequential damages, loss of profit or any other inconvenience caused on account of any such viruses or the like.

The information on the Website shall in no event be considered or relied upon as legal advice.

No WAU website User or any other person is authorized to represent Xtrategy or speak on behalf of Xtrategy’s Board unless expressly set out in our By-Laws or otherwise agreed in writing, nor on behalf of the World Arbitration Update, unless expressly authorized.

8. Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks to other websites are provided for convenience only.

These websites are not reviewed, controlled or examined by Xtrategy in any way and Xtrategy assumes no responsibility for the content, privacy policies and practices of any such linked sites, including without limitation, any additional links contained therein.

Xtrategy encourages You to review the privacy statements of websites You provide a link to from WAU’s Website as You are responsible for understanding how those websites collect, use and share Your information. Xtrategy is not responsible for the privacy statements or any other content on websites outside of WAU’s Website.

The hyperlinks do not imply Xtrategy’s endorsement of, or association with, the linked sites.

9. Suspension and Maintenance of the Website

Xtrategy reserves the right, at any time and in its sole discretion, to suspend or stop in whole or in part the access to its Website, mainly for maintenance, operational requirements, or emergency cases.

Xtrategy also reserves the right, at any time and in its sole discretion, to delete or to modify any content related to management of the Website, especially for technical or practical reasons.

Xtrategy shall incur no liability for such suspension or stoppage, which pursuant to paragraph 7 above, shall not give rise to any claims for damages or indemnities by Users.

  1. Governing Law; Jurisdiction

This Agreement is governed by and shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the District of Columbia, U.S.A., without regard to its principles of conflicts of law. 

III. Disclaimers

The information contained in the WAU’s website is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter.

No recipient of content from this site should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any content included in the site without seeking the appropriate legal or other professional advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from an attorney licensed in the recipient’s jurisdiction. The content of this website contains general information and may not reflect current legal developments. Xtrategy expressly disclaims all liability in respect to actions taken or not taken based on any or all of the contents of this site.

Xtrategy, trough the WAU’s website does not provide legal services.  The transmission of the WAU site, in part or in whole, and/or communication with Xtrategy via Internet e-mail through this site does not constitute or create an attorney-client relationship between Xtrategy (or any of its officers, directors or employees) and any recipients.

Xtrategy does not necessarily endorse, and is not responsible for, any third-party content that may be accessed through this website.

Voicica

Contact us

International Dispute Resolution and the Ukraine-Russia Crisis

World Arbitration Update (“WAU”) invites you to attend a 75-minute webinar discussion by leading practitioners in the international dispute resolution field on the recent developments concerning the intersection of dispute resolution and the Ukraine-Russia crisis. According to the Kyiv School of Economics, Ukraine has so far experienced economic damage amounting up to $600 billion. Over $10 billion in airplane assets have been reportedly stranded in Russia setting off potentially large insurance claims and related disputes. Yale School of Management has collected data showing that almost 1,000 companies have publicly announced they are voluntarily curtailing operations in Russia to some degree beyond the bare minimum legally required by international sanctions. The Russian parliament continues to consider the expropriation of foreign assets. International disputes involving Russia and Ukraine are arising from the crisis and more likely to follow. Our speakers will discuss related topics, including: the impact of sanctions, the proposed formation of an international claims commission for Ukraine, the impact of the crisis on the legal profession, the potential and current international forums in which Ukrainian businesses and investors could submit legal recourse to address the consequences of the war in Ukraine, as well as an update on the ICJ case, Ukraine v. Russian Federation.

Before using this website, please read carefully the Disclamer, Privacy Policy

Before using this website, please read carefully the Disclamer, Privacy Policy

The Actions of Russia, Countermeasures and Resulting International Disputes, Including Investor-State and Commercial Arbitration

September 26 at 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm GMT

DETAILS

Date:

JULY 12, 2022

Time:

6:00 pm to 7:30 pm GMT

ORGANIZERS

Moderators: Gene Burd (FisherBroyles) (TBC)

Presenter: Rob Houston (K&L Gates Straits Law LLC)

Panelist: Tatyana Slipachuk (Of Counsel at Chief Legal Department of the Ukrainian Parliament, Special Advisor at Sayenko Kharenko Law Firm) (TBC)

Panelist: Raja Bose (K&L Gates Straits Law LLC) (TBC)

Panelist: Derek Loh (Deputy Director-General (Economic & Social), Attorney-General’s Chambers, Singapore) (TBC)

Panelist: Simon Chesterman (Dean, National University of Singapore School of Law) 

In response to the imposition of international sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has imposed sweeping economic measures on foreign investors from States it considers “unfriendly”, including Singapore, the UK, the US, and EU Member States.  Both international sanctions on Russia and Russia’s own economic measures on foreign investors have had wide-ranging impacts across global market sectors, affecting foreign investors from around the world both directly through compliance mechanisms and indirectly through international commercial contracts.   

However, a number of venues exist for the resolution of the wide range of disputes anticipated to result from the current crisis.  In particular, foreign investors may still seek protection under investment treaties.  Currently, there are 62 BITs in force between Russia and other States, including 27 States that Russia has determined to be “unfriendly” as a result of international sanctions imposed on Russia.  Such treaties generally include substantive obligations to promote and protect foreign investment (e.g., to provide fair and equitable treatment, not to undertake unlawful expropriation of foreign investments, etc.) as well as for access to investment treaty arbitration against the Host State in certain circumstances.  Such public international law obligations under international investment treaties now appear at odds, for example, with recent economic measures imposed by Russia against foreign investors including: 

  • Currency Transfer Restrictions 

  • Transaction Approval Requirements 

  • Prohibition of Foreign Currency Export 

  • Restrictions on Debt Repayment 

  • Prohibition of Certain Exports and Imports 

  • Non-Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights 

Also, the Russian Duma has considered additional measures (which many anticipate to be expropriatory) to effect the transfer of ownership or operation of certain foreign investments where foreign investors have ceased operating in Russia in the current climate of international sanctions. The resulting international legal climate arising from Russia’s actions in Ukraine breaks new ground in public and private international law. Practitioners are therefore broadly anticipating a wave of disputes both in international commercial arbitration and in investor-State arbitration, including with respect to claims advanced by covered investors in investment treaty arbitration against Russia for economic measures like the above.   

This panel will explore the implications of these developments both from a global perspective and a regional perspective in Southeast Asia, highlighting the following key points of interest: 

  • The Current International Sanctions Climate 

  • Regional Focus on International Sanctions in Southeast Asia 

  • Consideration of Current Venues for Disputes Arising from the Invasion of Ukraine 

  • Potential Mechanisms for Foreign Investors to Pursue Claims Arising from the Conflict in Ukraine in Investment Treaty Arbitration 

  • Anticipated Disputes and Issues in International Commercial Arbitration Prompted by the Conflict in Ukraine 

  • The Current Landscape for Sovereign Immunity and the Potential for Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Against State Assets 

This program will provide a brief summary of recent developments in relation to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and identify key legal issues, including the interplay between international sanctions and customary international law (e.g., the characterization of countermeasures and the application of the law of State Responsibility (including State Defences) in Public International Law as well as issues arising in Private International Law and International Commercial Arbitration (such as Force Majeure).  The panel discussion will be followed by a Q&A period as well as a networking session.