Distinguishing Achmea

Two ICSID Arbitral Tribunals, on the basis of similar reasons, reached the same conclusion: Achmea decision (available here) does not affect their jurisdiction.

In a nutshell, this is the principle laid down in 9Ren v. Spain (final award of 31 May 2019 available here) and in Rockhopper v. Italy (partial award of 26 June 2019 available here).

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Review on the merits

A recent decision issued by Italian Supreme Court (No. 17159 of 26 June 2019, Italian text available here) gives me the chance to make brief comments on the scope of possible review on the merits of arbitration awards by Italian State Courts seised in proceedings for setting them aside.

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Dispute Review Board in Italian Public Procurement

The so-called “Decree Unblock-Construction” (“Decreto Sblocca-Cantieri”) (decree No. 32 of 18 April 2019, converted into law No. 55 of 14 June 2019) reintroduced, in the Italian system of public procurement, the advisory technical committee (“Comitato Consultivo Tecnico”), already provided for by Article 207 of legislative decree No. 50 of 18 April 2016 (repealed by legislative decree No. 56 of 19 April 2017).

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Assignment of credit and arbitration clause

The Italian Supreme Court has recently upheld its doctrine on the circulation of the arbitration clause in case of credit assignment (Italian Supreme Court, First Civil Chamber, decision No. 16127 of 14 June 2019, Italian text available here).

I have already examined this topic (in this post); nonetheless, in the light of its relevance, I believe that it is worth re-examining it.

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Corporate arbitration: the doctrine is (finally) right, its application is wrong

Corporate arbitration is a major topic for Italian arbitration practitioners.  The Italian Supreme Court developed a doctrine and laid down principles not entirely right.  Some lower Courts tried to take a more appropriate approach, but to no avail (I discussed this issue, for instance, in this post).

A recent decision issued by the Court of first instance of Bologna (No. 1378 of 13 June 2019, Italian text availabe here) ostensibly applied the right doctrine (or the doctrine I deem right); nonetheless, it came to the wrong conclusion.

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Wording of the arbitration clause and setting aside of the award

The wording of the arbitration clause is of utmost importance: this is a subject I have already dealt with (for instance in this post). A recent decision of the Court of Appeal of Milan (No. 2528 of 10 June 2019, Italian text available here) confirms this importance also with respect to the possible recourse for setting aside the award.

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Pledge for greener arbitrations

Lucy Greenwood, a collegue from the UK, is promoting the idea of a Pledge for Greener Arbitrations.

I think that this is a good idea and therefore I decided to share the link to take the pledge. Read more “Pledge for greener arbitrations”

New arbitration rules of Milan Chamber of Arbitration

The Milan Chamber of Arbitration published its new arbitration rules.  These new rules apply to arbitration proceedings commenced after 1st March 2019 unless the parties have agreed, under Article 832 of the Italian code of civil procedure, that the arbitration proceedings shall be subject to the arbitration rules in force at the time of the stipulation of the arbitration clause (however, in this case, the Arbitration Chamber may refuse to manage the proceedings).

The new rules are available here.

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Scope of corporate arbitration clauses

A recent decision issued by the Court of Cosenza (no. 1171 of 4 June 2019, Italian text available here) addresses the topic of the scope of corporate arbitration clauses.

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Prague Rules: minimal notes from an Italian perspective

In the last months, the international arbitration community has  discussed on a new topic: the Rules on the efficient conduct of proceedings in international arbitration (Prague Rules), officially presented on 14 December 2018  and available here.

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