In January 2013, a Working Group of the Uniform Law Conference of Canada (“ULCC”) issued a Discussion Paper with respect to proposals for a new Uniform International Commercial Arbitration Act. The Discussion Paper is intended to generate consultations by May 2013 and final approval by the ULCC in August 2013.  Background to the Discussion Paper [...]

The Queen’s Bench Court for Saskatchewan recently applied the Saskatchewan International Commercial Arbitration Act (SICAA) and the UNCITRAL Model law annexed to that Act and stayed an action based on the Saskatchewan Consumer Protection Act and a contract which was apparently between two Canadian entities. The decision in Zwack v. Pocha is important for two [...]

If an arbitration agreement states that there is to be no appeal from the award under the agreement, can a party seek judicial review on the ground that the award is unreasonable?  In Dunsmuir v. New Brunswick, [2008] 1 S.C.R. 190, the Supreme Court of Canada set out a comprehensive analysis for the judicial review [...]

Canada has recently signed a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) with the People’s Republic of China.  Under the Agreement, a complaining investor is entitled to submit a claim and have it dealt with under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules.  The real questions about this Agreement are: Will the UNCITRAL Arbitration rules in FIPA provide [...]

When material evidence tendered to an arbitral tribunal is fraudulent, we expect the court having jurisdiction to be very inclined to set the award aside.  But as the recent decision of the English High Court in Chantiers de l’Atlantique S.A. v. Gaztransport & Technigaz S.A.S. demonstrates, “it ain’t necessarily so.”  In that case the award [...]