Herfried Wöss, an arbitrator and partner at Wöss & Partners SC in Mexico City, says flaws in the disputes provisions of the new Mexican law on public-private partnerships may make investor-state arbitration a safer option for parties whose public contracts are unjustly terminated.

Dinesh Dhillon, a partner at Allen & Gledhill in Singapore, argues that the approaches taken by the courts of Australia, Singapore and the UK when an award debtor resists enforcement under the New York Convention on the basis that there was no valid arbitration agreement are consistent – and not as "mechanistic" as sometimes suggested.

The revised Swiss Rules of International Arbitration enter into force on 1 June – with cases to be administered by a single entity that brings the arbitration services of seven Swiss chambers of commerce under one roof for the first time. Philipp Habegger of Walder Wyss in Zurich, who sat on the drafting committee for the new rules, explains the changes.

A court in The Hague has refused to set aside three UNCITRAL awards rendered in favour of US oil company Chevron against Ecuador. Stan Putter, an associate at Eversheds in Amsterdam, reports.

Should an arbitration clause bind a non-signatory? Partner James Hope and associate Homan Hamzeh of Vinge in Stockholm say a recent Supreme Court decision confirms the traditional view that under Swedish law the answer is no – making it clear that the 'group of companies' doctrine does not apply in Sweden.

The Chief Justice of Malaysia has launched the second edition of the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration’s fast-track arbitration rules. The director of the centre, Sundra Rajoo, reports on their provisions.

Claus Lenz of LLS Lungerich Lenz Schuhmacher Rechtsanwälte in Cologne responds to an article by White & Case’s Christopher Seppälä on a Singapore Court of Appeal decision on the enforcement of a dispute adjudication board decision.

Karel Daele, a partner at Mkono & Co in Dar es Salaam and the author of a book on the challenge and disqualification of arbitrators in international arbitration, considers how similar challenges in different proceedings may lead to very different outcomes, in light of recent developments in the UNCITRAL case of Murphy Oil v Ecuador.

Reflecting on Brazil’s public bid to raise US$14 billion for the country’s airports, Arnoldo Wald, founding partner of Wald Associados Advogados, argues that the new contracts provide another example of arbitration being recognised as the best mechanism for resolving disputes involving public utilities contracts.

The Hungarian parliament recently passed legislation that expressly prohibits the choice of arbitration as a means of resolving disputes over national assets. Orsolya Toth, an associate at Allen & Overy in London and Balázs Sahin-Tóth, counsel at Allen & Overy in Budapest, report on the little-known provision.

Matthew Weiniger and Jennifer Hartzler, partner and associate at Herbert Smith in London, reflect on an ICSID tribunal's split decision regarding the role of investor consent in deciding whether to arbitrate a host state's related counterclaim.

A Japanese court has set aside an arbitral award for the first time under the country’s 2004 Arbitration Act. Nicholas Lingard, a Japanese-speaking associate in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s New York office, and Akiko Yamakawa, senior counsel in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Tokyo office, report.