Shortly after retiring as secretary general of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, Ulf Franke tells Alison Ross what it was like to lead the institution for three and a half decades when world trade was booming and East-West barriers were breaking down

Stockholm: Ulf Franke received a liber amicorum and a standing ovation at an event to mark his retirement after 35 years as secretary general of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.

In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the anti-hero Kurtz sums up his experience of the Congo simply: “The horror! The horror!” Kurtz evoked a time when the region was still under the brutal subjugation of the Belgian king, Leopold II. As arbitration claims against the DRC mount up, Uzma Sulaiman considers whether his words ring true for modern investors

An interview with arbitrator and former International Court of Justice judge, Stephen M Schwebel.

For 35 years, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce has been synonymous with Ulf Franke.

Alison Ross considers how the SCC Institute acquired its reputation for handling disputes between East and West – and whether it is still justified

In 2017, the SCC Arbitration Institute will celebrate its centenary. Alison Ross considers what lies ahead and some of the challenges it faces under Annette Magnusson.

"Throughout the 1970s and 1980s both the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce and its long-serving Secretary General, Ulf Franke, served as the main bridge between an emerging China and the international arbitration community, a fact which has left deep imprints on Chinese arbitration rules and practice", writes Michael Moser in Ulf Franke's Liber Amicorum. Alison Ross reports on an enduring relationship.

Federico Godoy and Juan Sonoda of Beretta Godoy in Buenos Aires report on the latest clarification of a principle that has been going strong in Argentina for over 90 years, and what happened when an Argentine defendant sought to appeal a jurisdictional decision on the basis of the UNCITRAL Model Law

The French Court of Cassation has ruled that a lower court inappropriately applied estoppel in refusing to set aside an ICC award in Merial v Klocke Verpackungs (Civil 1st Chamber, 3 February 2010). Isabelle Michou, a partner at Herbert Smith in Paris, says the decision is “unsurprising” in light of the parties’ behaviour in this case.

Graeme Johnston, a partner at Herbert Smith LLP in Shanghai, analyses the important recent Hong Kong ruling in FG Hemisphere Associates v Democratic Republic of Congo.

In August 2008, the government of Venezuela attempted to arrest and seize three vessels that were once owned and operated by its ICSID adversary, Cemex – aggravating an already bitter dispute, according to the Mexican cement company. The tribunal hearing the case refused to grant interim relief, saying that it was neither “urgent” nor “necessary” in the circumstances. Mathew Weiniger and Promod Nair of Herbert Smith report on a case that underlines the high threshold for provisional measures under the ICSID Convention

Third-party funding of international arbitration claims has grown dramatically in the past few years. But can the third-party funder be subject to a costs award when the claimant loses? There may be no agreed answer to that question in international arbitration, but decisions of the English Court of Appeal in 2005 and a Florida intermediate appellate court late in 2009 may show us the way by analogy. Mark Kantor, an attorney in Washington, DC and a member of Global Arbitration Review’s editorial board, reports

After 21 years as leader of the Freshfields arbitration practice, Jan Paulsson is finally to have a base at its nerve centre in London, from which he will carry out academic duties at the London School of Economics and act as counsel and arbitrator “on an ever-more selective basis”.

Tomasz Wardynski, senior partner at Wardynski & Wspólnicy in Warsaw, reports on the final resolution of two long running privatisation disputes that have been a drain on Polish resources for some years

Russia’s highest judicial authority has ruled that foreign arbitral awards imposing interest on damages and costs are not unenforceable for public policy reasons, clarifying an issue that has long divided the courts. Alexander Muranov and Dmitry Davydenko of Muranov Chernyakov & Partners Law Firm in Moscow report

Nathan Searle and Yacine Francis, senior associates at Lovells LLP in London, report on a recent Court of Appeal judgment in a dispute between African breweries, that gives guidance on when it may be possible to appeal an order granted by the English court in support of arbitral proceedings

What would Jan Paulsson, Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler, and Yves Fortier take if sent to arbitrate on a desert island? Fortunately, someone decided to find out. It wasn’t quite The Jay Leno Show, but Hilary Heilbron QC did her best to lighten the mood at the International Bar Association arbitration day in London in March

Washington & Lee School of Law and UNCTAD have held the first international investment conference to offer pre-conference blogging, a live virtual stream of the event, and real-time integration of comments from Twitter and Facebook into panel discussions. Jacob Stoehr and William Li, Washington & Lee student liaisons, report

The Practising Law Institute’s latest conference on International Arbitration compared four leading arbitration venues, noted some positive developments in Russia as regards enforcement of awards and saw a panel of arbitrators share practical tips for smooth and speedy operation at every step of the arbitral proceedings. Samaa Haridi of Crowell & Moring and Hagit Elul of Hughes Hubbard & Reed report.

This year’s Vienna Arbitration Days considered “guerrilla tactics in arbitration” along with how to reconcile contract and treaty arbitration and the special considerations that arise in cases featuring state entities or insolvent companies. Alfred Siwy, an associate at Schönherr Rechtsanwälte in Vienna, reports

A two-day conference organised by UNCITRAL and the International Arbitral Centre of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (VIAC) brought delegates up to speed on the revision of the UNCITRAL arbitration rules. Jarred Pinkston of Graf & Pitkowitz Rechtsanwälte and Manfred Heider, secretary general of VIAC, report

Has the Golden Age of arbitration in the US come to an end? Delegates at a recent ITA-ASIL event in Washington, DC considered this question in the light of the fraying relationship between domestic and international arbitration law and calls for changes to the US Model BIT. Caroline S Richard, an associate at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP in Washington, DC, reports

Volker Mahnken, 53 is senior litigation counsel at Siemens AG, based in the Bavarian city of Erlangen in Germany. He tells Uzma Balkiss Sulaiman about Siemens’ policies with regard to arbitration and the qualities he likes and dislikes in external counsel and arbitrators.