Months after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon Rig that killed 11 workers and caused the largest offshore oil spill in US history, the battle to stop the flow of oil is just about over. Kyriaki Karadelis considers the legal fall out and where international arbitration will fit into the picture

Alison Ross looks back on the recent award in Piero Foresti, Laura de Carli v South Africa, which paves the way for future cooperation between South Africa and the mining sector

The Chilean arbitrator who sat in Maffezini v Spain, Fedax v Venezuela and Joy v Egypt, as well as the Enron and Sempra Energy claims against Argentina, speaks to Alison Ross.

The European legal director for US aerospace firm Northrop Grumman talks about the company’s approach to international arbitration and the unique aspects of aerospace arbitration, as well as his role as a member of the steering committee of the Corporate Counsel International Arbitration Group, the CCIAG

Victor Dumler, a senior international commercial arbitration and litigation specialist at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev and Partners in St Petersburg, considers the ease of enforcing foreign arbitral awards in Russia – particularly recent cases where parties have resisted enforcement saying they were not notified of necessary information regarding the arbitration or that it breached public policy

Ke nato – "it is time" – was the slogan of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, suggesting a country ready to become a player on the global stage. But can South Africa rise to prominence in international arbitration – or will legislative lethargy, political controversy and even racial sensitivities continue to blight development in this area? Alison Ross reports

Federico Godoy and Juan Sonoda of Beretta Godoy in Buenos Aires report on recent case that confirms that the New York Convention suppresses the requirement of exequatur (a special procedure to incorporate an award into the Argentine legal system

FIDIC contracts are widely used for international construction projects. Ben Mellors, an associate at White & Case and co-author of FIDIC Contracts: Law and Practice, looks at particular aspects of the dispute resolution provisions of recently published FIDIC contracts, along with those currently being updated

A recent decision in the longrunning case of Sempra Energy v Argentina saw an ad hoc ICSID committee annul the tribunal’s award on the basis that the tribunal had manifestly exceeded its powers. Matthew Weiniger and Ruth Byrne of Herbert Smith LLP report

The February 2010 decision of the ICSID annulment committee in the dispute between investors Rumeli Telekom and Telsim Mobil and Kazakhstan highlights how tribunals may resolve the fundamental problem in expropriation cases of the “inherently uncertain” quantification of a business’s market value. Mark Kantor, a Washington, DC attorney and member of the Global Arbitration Review editorial board, says that, for the annulment committee, the process of calculating the amount to be awarded is one of “informed estimation” by the tribunal

Thabiso van den Bosch, a partner at Conway & Partners in Rotterdam, considers a Russian oil company’s recent appeal to the Dutch Supreme Court over the enforcement of four arbitral awards against it – and how it failed on a point of admissibility

When Poland’s Law and Justice party was swept out of power in the 2007 election, it left a row over obligatory fuel reserves as a parting gift to the new ruling party, led by Donald Tusk. Tomasz Wardynski, a partner at Wardynski & Partners in Warsaw, reports on the dispute, now the subject of an arbitration in Stockholm

On 1 July, the Commercial Court of Tomsk refused to enforce an arbitral award rendered by the ICC Court of International Arbitration in February 2007 in a dispute between two former subsidiaries of Yukos Oil Company – Tomskneft and Yukos Capital. Dmitry Davydenko and Alexander Muranov of Muranov Chernyakov & Partners in Moscow report

One of the essential features of arbitration that distinguishes it from litigation is the parties’ right to appoint arbitrators. So what happens if one of the arbitrators selected by the parties dies or is unable to proceed further with the arbitration hearings? Timur Aitkulov, Dmitry Malukevich and Anna Nikulina, of Clifford Chance CIS report on a recent decision of the Supreme Arbitrazh Court of the Russian Federation that tackled this question

The revised Arbitration Rules of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre came into force on 1 July 2010, replacing the 2007 rules. Richard Hill, a partner at Fulbright & Jaworski in Hong Kong welcomes this latest aspect of Singapore’s efforts to promote itself as a hub for arbitration in Asia, as most visibly demonstrated by the opening of Maxwell Chambers in early 2010.

In a recent decision with implications for arbitration, the Court of Appeal in London clarified the construction of section 31 of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 in the context of sovereign immunity claims under the State Immunity Act 1978 Matthew Page, an associate at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, reports on an important judgment for those acting for or against sovereign states in proceedings in a foreign court and clarifies the law on enforcement of foreign judgments in this context

Hagit Elul, an associate at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, reports on a US Supreme Court case that extends the doctrine of the severability of arbitration agreements

Arbitration in Europe seems fated to be “steamrollered by the juggernaut of EU conformity”,with the New York Convention no longer functioning and tribunals unable to determine their own jurisdiction, an audience in London heard last week.

Matthew Weiniger, of Herbert Smith LLP in London, made this bleak assessment as part of a talk entitled “Nightmare or Fairy Tale: Arbitration and the EU”, in which he discussed the effect of last year’s decisions by the European Court of Justice in West Tankers and the English Court of Appeal in National Navigation v Endesa. Sebastian Perry reports.

The Spanish Arbitration Club (CEA) held its fifth international conference in Madrid on 20-22 June, entitled “Arbitrators: A Global View”. The event was opened by the Spanish minister of justice, Francisco Caamaño Domínguez, who discussed the draft reform bill to the Spanish Arbitration Act recently submitted to the council of ministers for approval; and CEA co-chair Jesús Remón, who spoke of the importance of arbitration as an authentic “infrastructure for investment” and the essential role of arbitrators in that process. Remón highlighted the certainty offered by Spanish cities as a seat of arbitration and the active role of the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking arbitration community in promoting international arbitration.

A panel in the first BIICL Investment Treaty Forum event to take place in Paris considered challenges to arbitrators, provisional measures and the Salini test – with French arbitrator Brigitte Stern chairing

As the world watched developments in the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, arbitration practitioners gathered in Lagos in late July to exchange ideas on the resolution of energy and infrastructure disputes, and the impact of the industry on the economy, environment and development. Céline Lachman of Clifford Chance in Paris reports

Emergency arbitration, ethical issues and arbitration in emerging markets were on the bill at this year’s AIJA Annual Arbitration Conference in London. Gisela Knuts and Henrik Fieber of Roschier report.

What goes on behind the closed doors of the ICC Court? An event in Paris recently offered outsiders the chance to learn how the court approaches challenges to the independence or impartiality of arbitrators. Tom Toulson reports

Lucy Reed of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in New York focused on the “drumbeat of criticism” against arbitration at a recent conference in Milan. Daniele de Carolis of the University of Trento reports.

Editors: James H Carter and John Fellas.

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Authors: Christoph Schreuer with Loretta Malintoppi, August Reinisch and Anthony Sinclair.

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Authors: Franz T Schwarz and Christian W Konrad.

Publisher: Wolters Kluwer, 2009