With elections taking place in Belize tomorrow, GAR reports on what investors describe as "a pattern of anti-investor, anti-arbitration action" by the government, aimed partly at breaking down Lord Ashcroft's significant business interests in the country.

Three decades after it was set up to defuse the Iranian hostage crisis, the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague is still arbitrating cases worth tens of billions of dollars. Sebastian Perry charts its impact on a generation of practitioners.

Matthew Parish, partner in the Geneva office of Holman Fenwick Willan, considers the explosive growth of the commodities trading and shipping industries in Geneva, and the increasing importance of the city as an arbitration centre to resolve the disputes these businesses generate.

Albert Monichino SC, a senior counsel and arbitrator at List A Barristers in Melbourne, considers a recent decision of the High Court of Australia that tackled conflicting case law on the standard of reasons required of an arbitrator in a domestic arbitration context (with potential impact on the Model Law scheme).

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.

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.

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.

Mark Kantor, an independent arbitrator in Washington, DC, says the just-published award in ExxonMobil's ICC dispute with Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA shows a remarkable disparity in what the two sides paid in experts' fees.

Two recent Russian court rulings help determine whether "corporate disputes" can be resolved by arbitral tribunals under Russian law. Timur Aitkulov and Julia Popelysheva, partner and senior associate at Clifford Chance in Moscow, report.

Barrie Sander, of Herbert Smith in London, considers Venezuela's recent withdrawal from the ICSID Convention, analysing the different schools of thought on its legal implications.

The former Irish minister for justice, Dermot Ahern, spoke about the arbitration legislation he piloted through parliament in 2010 at a recent Chartered Institute of Arbitrators roundtable in Dublin. Barrister and arbitrator Arran Dowling Hussey reports on the event, which saw the act praised as a strong piece of law.

As China ushered in the Year of the Dragon, the HK45 young practitioners group looked back at the Year of the Rabbit and some of the key arbitration-related decisions of the Hong Kong courts. Ula Cartwright-Finch, an associate at Herbert Smith in Hong Kong, reports.

David Bateson, a partner at Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Hong Kong, reports on the latest Kaplan lecture, in which UK appeal court judge Lord Justice Bernard Rix found inspiration in an Oscar Wilde quote on the nature of “truth”.

Representatives of five young practitioners’ groups debated current issues in international commercial and investor-state arbitration before a mixed-age audience in San Francisco. Thomas Walsh, an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York and the chair of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration’s Young Arbitrator Initiative, reports.

Practitioners should refrain from mixing the roles of arbitrator and counsel in investor-state arbitration because it contributes to a perception that the system is stacked in favour of claimants, the IBA International Arbitration Day in Stockholm heard.

Three panels at the Vienna Arbitration Days focused on the overlap of international arbitration and European Law and ways that the framework for arbitration in Europe should be developed. Alfred Siwy, an attorney at Schoenherr in Vienna, reports.

Nearly 10 years after the first claim arising from Argentina’s debt default was filed, an ITA-ASIL event considered whether legal responses to political and economic crises have “reinforced or damaged the fabric of international law” and whether investor-state arbitration is an effective vehicle for addressing the fallout. Julia Peck, an associate at Hoguet Newman Regal and Kenney in New York, reports.

Authors: Abdel Hamid El-Ahdab and Jalal El-Ahdab. Published by Kluwer, 3rd edition, 2011. Reviewed by Emmanuel Gaillard, professor of law at University of Paris XII and head of international arbitration at Shearman & Sterling