The first African International Commercial Law Conference in Douala, Cameroon, considered the success of various efforts to harmonise commercial law, the effectiveness of OHADA arbitration and whether South Africa is being surpassed by its near neighbours when it comes to arbitration.

Jan Paulsson and Alexis Mourre debated whether it would be better to let institutions, not parties, appoint members of arbitral tribunals at a recent event in London.

Russian courts are ready to assist in foreign arbitration proceedings but are inclined to treat some domestic arbitral awards with suspicion because of a proliferation of small commercial arbitration institutions in Russia that are often perceived to lack independence, a leading Russian judge has told an audience in London. Julia Zagonek, a senior associate at White & Case in London, reports

Paschalis Paschalidis, an associate in Shearman & Sterling’s international arbitration group, reports on a recent roundtable hosted by Shearman & Sterling in Paris to examine the progress of the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law of International Commercial Arbitration.

The 2010 Juris conference on 'Cross-Examination in International Arbitration', which took place in Vienna on 5 November, began with a self-described "recovering American trial lawyer" sharing the wisdom gained from his previous life and ended with a mock cross-examination that proved that continental lawyers do not lack the tenacity of their common-law brethren. Jarred Pinkston, of Graf & Pitkowitz in Vienna, reports.

Lawyers at a conference in Ukraine this week responded to the negative feedback on Moscow in the recent White & Case survey with wildly differing assessments of Russia's arbitration regime.

At the Milan Chamber of Arbitration's annual conference last week, secretary general Stefano Azzali spoke of the need for greater cooperation between arbitral institutions in North Africa and their European neighbours.

At a seminar in Milan yesterday, Constantine Partasides of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer defended proposals for an ethical code for counsel in international arbitrations, saying it was time for transnational rules “with teeth”.

King & Spalding partner Doak Bishop noted a liberalisation in the way we define an investor at the recent IAI conference in Paris, during a session devoted to personal jurisdiction issues in investment treaty arbitration.

An event in Paris explored jurisdictional issues arising in investment treaty arbitration – with reference to a variety of different perspectives and the ICSID Convention's travaux préparatoires.