John Fellas’ Post

With many thanks to Wolters Kluwer and Patricia Shaughnessy for allowing me to give a repeat performance by podcast of a talk I gave 20th Anniversary Conference of the International Commercial Arbitration Law program in #Stockholm. While perhaps a video version might have been better, I was assured I have a face made for a podcast. #arbitration #arbitrationlaw #internationalarbitration #arbitragem

Please Save the Date — 22 July to 26 July 2024 for the annual Summer Course on International Arbitration at Durham Law School. Alongside my co-directors Charles T. Kotuby Jr. FCIArb, Christian Leathley, and Wendy Miles KC we will welcome the third cohort of practitioners and students to our annual Summer Course on International Arbitration. Lecturers include Professor Sir Bernard Rix. We will announce other guest lecturers as they are confirmed. Space is limited. To register interest and receive updates, please sign up here: https://lnkd.in/eQaJAY9V

My most recent article from my International Arbitration column in The New York Law Journal offers a view from across the Atlantic of the Bill that is currently before the English Parliament that, if passed, would amend the English Arbitration Act. I focus on one proposed amendment in particular of which parties in other countries need to be aware as it is likely to run counter to their expectations. This is the proposed adoption a default rule to the effect that the choice of an English seat for arbitration (e.g., London) entails that English law will govern the arbitration clause in the underlying contract, notwithstanding that the contract expressly provides that it will be governed by something other than English law. I take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year! #internationalarbitration #arbitration #arbitragem #arbitrajeinternacional #disputeresolution

Please join me and Abby Cohen Smutny on Tuesday September 19 at the GAR Live: New York conference. View the agenda here: https://lnkd.in/efAkReqy #arbitration #internationalarbitration #arbitragem #globalarbitrationreview

I attach my recent article in The New York Law Journal, (July 5, 2023), US Supreme Court Continues Its Pro-Arbitration Approach, in which I discuss two recent decisions of the US Supreme Court that are decidedly pro-arbitration: Coinbase v. Bielski and Yegiazaryan v. Smagin. #arbitration #supremecourt #law #internationalarbitration #arbitragem #scotus

The US Supreme Court seems to be on a roll – issuing yet another pro-arbitration decision today.  This one is less significant than yesterday’s decision in Ashot Yegiazaryan v. Vitaly Ivanovich Smagin, et al., which held that a foreign resident may rely on the racketeering statute, RICO, to enforce an arbitration award in the US.  https://lnkd.in/ejc2DcqF Unlike Yegiazaryan, which involved the end of the arbitration process, and the enforcement of an award, today's case, Coinbase Inc. v. Bielski concerns the beginning of the process, and a dispute about whether a case belongs in arbitration in the first place. In Coinbase, the Supreme Court held that a district court must stay a lawsuit when a party seeking to arbitrate appeals that court’s decision denying a motion to compel arbitration. Imagine Party A sues Party B in court and B defends claiming the case should be in arbitration, and asking the court to compel arbitration.  If the court denies B’s motion to compel, A’s case remains in court and can go forward on the merits.  Suppose, however, B appeals the court’s decision denying its motion to compel.  At this point, there are two proceedings – A’s lawsuit before the district court on the merits, and B’s appeal in the circuit court claiming that A’s lawsuit actually belongs in arbitration. The question before the Supreme Court boiled down to this:  when B appeals a decision denying its motion to compel, does that automatically stay A’s lawsuit on the merits? Writing for the majority, Justice Kavanagh answered that question in the affirmative, relying primarily on considerations of efficiency: ”If the district court could move forward with pre-trial and trial proceedings while the appeal on arbitrability was ongoing, then many of the asserted benefits of arbitration (efficiency, less expense, less intrusive discovery, and the like) would be irretrievably lost—even if the court of appeals later concluded that the case actually had belonged in arbitration all along.” Justice Jackson (joined by Justices Kagan and Sotomayor and, in part, by Justice Thomas) dissented: “This mandatory-general-stay rule for interlocutory arbitrability appeals comes out of nowhere. No statute imposes it. Nor does any decision of this Court. Yet today’s majority invents a new stay rule perpetually favoring one class of litigants—defendants seeking arbitration.” #arbitration #arbitragem #internationalarbitration #SCOTUS #supremecourt

In a major decision, the US Supreme Court held today that a foreign citizen can rely on the racketeering statute, RICO, to enforce an international arbitration award in the US courts.  Because RICO provides for the recovery of treble damages and attorneys’ fees, this decision gives a powerful weapon to those seeking to enforce foreign arbitral awards in the United States. The case of Ashot Yegiazaryan v. Vitaly Ivanovich Smagin, et al., arose out of a London Court of International Arbitration award for over US$84 million rendered in favor of Smagin against Yegiazaryan in 2014.  Smagin, a Russian citizen, enforced the award under the New York Convention in the District Court for the Central District of California, where Yegiazaryan resided, effectively transforming the award into a judgment of a California court.  Yegiazaryan then allegedly took fraudulent steps to evade paying that judgment, including by setting up a complex web of nominee entities to conceal his assets and intimidating witnesses. Smagin responded by bringing a separate lawsuit in California under the RICO statute against Yegiazaryan and others, alleging that they worked together under Yegiazaryan’s direction to frustrate Smagin’s collection on the California judgment through a pattern of wire fraud and other RICO predicate acts, including witness tampering and obstruction of justice. In order to assert a claim under the RICO statute, a party has to demonstrate that there was a “domestic injury.” The central issue before the Supreme Court was whether Smagin’s status as a foreign resident alone precluded him from demonstrating such an injury.  The Court held it did not, but, instead, that the question of whether a domestic injury had been alleged looks to all the circumstances of the case.  The Court found significant that “Yegiazaryan took domestic actions to avoid collection, including allegedly creating U. S. shell companies to hide his U. S. assets, submitting a forged doctor’s note to a California District Court, and intimidating a U. S.-based witness.” #internationalarbitration #arbitration #arbitragem #LCIA #supremecourt #arbitrationlaw #scotus

Registration for the second annual Summer Course on International Arbitration at the University of Durham Law School closes on 15 June, just two weeks from now. Held in the beautiful city of Durham in the North-East of England from 10-15 July 2023, this course will offer a unique opportunity for law students and lawyers to learn from an experienced group of arbitration scholars and practitioners from across the field. The course has been created by co-directors Charles T. Kotuby Jr. FCIArb, Wendy Miles KC, Christian Leathley, and myself. Over the course of six days, we will be joined by distinguished experts in the field, including, Sir Bernard Rix, Dame Elizabeth Gloster, Lei CHEN, Karyl Nairn KC, Penny Madden KC, Sylvia Tonova, Mahnaz Malik, and Can EKEN. Additional information and registration details can be found at https://lnkd.in/eT5q4_mJ #internationalarbitration #arbitration #arbitragem #law #lawyers #durhamuniversity #disputeresolution #DUinspire