Crossroads of Insolvency and Arbitration

Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business, Volume 43A

Each year, a Special Issue of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business is published under the auspices of the Center for International Legal Studies. The 2022 Special Issue addresses the intersection of arbitration and insolvency. This junction has been made all the more topical and intense by the adverse effects of Covid-19 on a broad range of businesses’ finances and supply chains, and by the still growing recourse to arbitration (and other forms of alternative dispute resolution) to resolve business disputes. A diverse pool of contributors gives a broad range of perspectives from Europe (Italy, Lithuania, the United Kingdom), the Middle East (Palestine, UAE), Asia (India), Africa (Zimbabwe), North America (Canada) and public international law on several common issues posed when one or more parties to an arbitration (agreement) are faced with a financial crisis – or vice versa when an overindebted party is expected to resolve claims that it has or faces, not in State courts but before “private” adjudicators.

This Special Issue is aimed at bringing to fore the multitude of issues that exist at the convergences of the domains—a step toward better understanding the intricacies and the complexities that arise in different jurisdictions, and how stakeholders react. To highlight just a few of the aspects addressed:

• the law to be applied by arbitral tribunals in regard to insolvency issues;

• insolvency arbitrations and tax claims;

• how the representatives of bankrupt entities may participate in international investment claims;

• avoidance of transactions and anti-suit injunctions; and

• the uneasy but unavoidable cohabitation of insolvency and arbitration in the Middle East and North Africa Region.