Secretariat's Hong Kong office opens to great acclaim

The launch of the new Hong Kong branch of the Secretariat of the International Court of Arbitration was celebrated at a conference co-organized by ICC in association with Hong Kong's Department of Justice and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Under the banner International Arbitration-East Asia Comes of Age, the event attracted an audience of over 500 lawyers, business leaders and government officials from different countries, who heard regional specialists discuss dispute resolution from a local perspective.

The conference highlighted the changing landscape of dispute resolution in East Asia and the importance of adequate services to respond to growing needs. It is against this background that ICC took the initiative of giving its arbitration services a local foothold through the new Hong Kong branch of the Secretariat of the Court. Staffed by a case management team with the professional, cultural and linguistic expertise required for handling cases linked to South and East Asia, the office brings a new proximity to the Court's services. Parties are now able to file Requests for Arbitration with the Hong Kong branch of the Secretariat, instead of sending them to Paris, and the Secretariat's exchanges with parties and arbitrators are facilitated by real-time communication in a common time zone.

At the same time, the new office remains an integral part of the Secretariat of the Court. A video link enables it to take part in the Court's weekly Committee meetings and monthly Plenary sessions as well as Secretariat staff meetings, and round-the-clock access to ICC's array of case management resources allows it to serve its clients' needs even when Paris sleeps.

The Secretariat's Hong Kong team is headed by Director and Counsel Khong Cheng-Yee, assisted by two Deputy Counsel and two secretaries. As the Court's former representative in Asia and the Pacific, Ms Khong has extensive experience of the region and speaks Cantonese and Bahasa Malaysia as well as English and French. A Malaysian citizen, she was educated in England and has been admitted both as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and as an Advocate and Solicitor in Malaysia. She has practised law and international arbitration in London, Paris and Kuala Lumpur.

Contact details for the Secretariat's Hong Kong office are as follows:

Secretariat of the ICC International Court of Arbitration - Asia Office Suite 2, 12/F, Fairmont House 8 Cotton Tree Drive Central Hong Kong Telephone: (852) 3607 5600 Fax: (852) 2523 1619 Email: ica8@iccwbo.org

ICC Executive Board approves amendment to Court's Internal Rules

At its meeting in Hong Kong last November, the ICC Executive Board approved an amendment to Appendix II to the ICC Rules of Arbitration (Internal Rules of the International Court of Arbitration) to allow branches of the Secretariat of the Court to be established and operated outside ICC headquarters. This amendment was occasioned by the creation of a branch in Hong Kong (see above) and opens the way for other similar initiatives elsewhere in the future. As a result, the Secretariat is now empowered to receive Requests for Arbitration and perform other functions under the Rules of Arbitration at any branch as well as at its Paris headquarters.

At the same time, the Court's Internal Rules were also amended to recognize the fact that the positions of Deputy Secretary General and General Counsel, which were held by one and the same person when the Rules were originally drafted, have since 1998 been separated into two distinct positions.

Both of these amendments concern Article 5 of the Internal Rules, entitled Court Secretariat, which now reads as follows:

1

In case of absence, the Secretary General may delegate to the Deputy Secretary General and/or the General Counsel the authority to confirm arbitrators, to certify true copies of Awards and to request the payment of a provisional advance, respectively provided for in Articles 9(2), 28(2) and 30(1) of the Rules.

2

The Secretariat may, with the approval of the Court, issue notes and other documents for the information of the parties and the arbitrators, or as necessary for the proper conduct of the arbitral proceedings.

3

Branches of the Secretariat may be established outside the headquarters of the ICC. The Secretariat shall keep a list of offices designated as branches by the Secretary General. Requests for Arbitration may be submitted to the Secretariat at its seat or at any of its branches, and the Secretariat's functions under the Rules may be carried out from its seat or any of its branches, as instructed by the Secretary General, Deputy Secretary General or General Counsel.

Court clocks up 16,000 cases

As 2008 came to a close, the total number of cases filed with the International Court of Arbitration since its creation rose to over 16,000 and the number of cases filed during the year to over 600. The new total brings the number of cases arbitrated under the current version of the ICC Rules of Arbitration to over 6,000.

Back in June 1998, some six months after the Rules came into force, the Court registered its 10,000th case, which was between US and Russian parties from the commodities and raw materials sector. The arbitral tribunal had its seat in Zurich and applied Swiss law to resolve the dispute, while the case was conducted in English.

Some five years later, case no. 13,000 was filed between parties from Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and China. The dispute related to the energy industry and was decided in Caracas in accordance with Venezuelan law. Again the proceedings were conducted in English.

A further five years later, case no. 16,000, again relating to the energy sector, was initiated by Chilean and Brazilian claimants against a Brazilian respondent. It is seated in Chile and applies Chilean substantive law, and the proceedings are being conducted in Spanish.

These three landmark cases filed over the last ten years are in many ways typical of ICC's caseload. Parties in ICC arbitrations very often come from different continents as well as different countries, and tribunals seated throughout the world apply a wide range of laws and use numerous languages to decide disputes from all areas of the economy. The amounts in dispute in all three of the above cases exceeded 10 million dollars. The two more recent cases, in particular, underline the importance of ICC arbitration to international business partnerships and investment projects in developing regions.

Commission Task Force surveys national rules of procedure for enforcement of awards

The ICC Commission on Arbitration marked the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards by creating a standing Task Force on National Rules of Procedure for Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Awards pursuant to the New York Convention of 1958.

This Task Force has completed the first edition of its Report, which will be published in the forthcoming 2008 Special Supplement to the Bulletin.

The Report is a practical resource for international arbitration practitioners and users and is designed to be consulted as a first step when considering recognition and enforcement of foreign awards in one or more countries.

Consistent with the mandate of the Task Force, the Report focuses on national rules of procedure for recognition and enforcement of foreign awards under Articles III and IV of the New York Convention. These national rules vary considerably amongst the 144 States now party to the New York Convention and can have a major practical impact on obtaining recognition and enforcement.

The Report follows an orderly and user-friendly structure, comprising an Introduction, an Overview and over 60 individual Country Answers, together with several useful Appendices.

The Country Answers form the main body of the report and will be of primary interest to arbitration practitioners and users. The main subjects covered are:

(A) The Contracting State and the New York Convention;

(B) National Sources of Law;

(C) Limitation Periods (Time Limits);

(D) National Courts and Court Proceedings;

(E) Evidence Required;

(F) Stay of Enforcement;

(G) Confidentiality; and

(H) Other Issues.

The Overview highlights certain points of practical interest arising out of the individual Country Answers. Of particular note, the Overview addresses the limitation periods (time limits), if any, applicable to recognition and enforcement of foreign awards in the countries covered by the Report. There is, for example, a two-year limitation period in the People's Republic of China and a three-year limitation period in the USA. The Overview also identifies certain countries covered by the Report where it may be possible to obtain recognition and enforcement of a foreign award despite its having been set aside at the place of arbitration. This type of practical information may be critically important for parties considering the enforcement of foreign awards in various countries.

As the first systematic compilation of information specifically devoted to national rules of procedure governing the recognition and enforcement of foreign awards, the Task Force's Report promises to be a valuable addition to the legal resources available to the international arbitration community.