BIICL Conference on Unilateral Jurisdiction and Arbitration Clauses
The British Institute of International and Comparative Law will hold a seminar on Unilateral Jurisdiction and Arbitration Clauses, Valid or Not? on Wednesday 8 May 2013 from 17:15 to 19 pm.
This seminar examines so-called unilateral or asymmetric dispute resolution clauses, which oblige only one of the parties to bring their case in a specific court, while the other is free to select between different fora. Recently, the French Cour de Cassation has decided that this type of clause is invalid. Since, the validity of one-way jurisdiction clauses has been debated in various countries. The debate includes the question how hybrid arbitration clauses are to be assessed.
Speakers will discuss the French Supreme Court’s decision; the views of different Member States on the interpretation of Art. 23 Brussels I Regulation; the future of unilateral jurisdiction clauses; and the interpretation of hybrid arbitration clauses.
Chair:
Craig Tevendale, Partner, Herbert Smith Freehills
Speakers:
Professor Gilles Cuniberti, University of Luxemburg
Dr Maxi Scherer, Special Counsel, WilmerHale; Senior Lecturer, Queen Mary (London)
Professor Matthias Lehmann, University of Halle-Wittenber
For more information, see here.
About the French Supreme Court’s decision, see “Reflections on One-Sided Jurisdiction Clauses in International Litigation (About the Rothschild Decision, French Cour de Cassation, 26 September 2012)” (M.-E. Ancel, L. Marion, L. Wynaendts) http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2258419.
The paper suggests to draw a difference between truly discretionary clauses (that can legitimately be prohibited) and simply dissociative clauses (that should be upheld unless they substantially disadvantage one of the parties).