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The International Law Section Gazette
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iLaw2017 Hotel Reservations
Discounted hotel rooms at the Conrad Hotel are now available for the iLaw2017! The Conrad Hotel has set up a webpage exclusively for the iLaw2017: https://aws.passkey.com/go/iLaw2017 . Access this website to make your reservations for the new iLaw2017!
Attendees can also call 1-800-CONRADS to secure guest room accommodations by phone. The iLaw2017's program brochure, including registration information will be available shortly.
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The ILS held its holiday party on December 8, 2016 at the Key Biscayne home of ILS Chair, Alvin Lindsay and Key Biscayne Mayor, Mayra Peña Lindsay.
During the night, the Women in International Law Committee collected new and gently used women's professional attire and accessories to be donated to Dress for Success Miami.
Dress for Success provides a network of support, professional attire, and development tools to help women who are entering or re-entering the workforce. The ILS
collected and donated more than 10 bags of clothing, shoes, and accessories. Congratulations to the Women in International Law Committee, great job!!!
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Call for Readers for Vis East Moot
The Fourteenth Annual Willem C. Vis East International Arbitration Moot is currently seeking readers to review Claimant and Respondent Memoranda submitted by competing teams. The Moot, which will take place in Hong Kong starting March 26, 2017, has more than 130 teams registered, which the highest number in its history. Readers will be receive 4-6 Claimants' Memoranda on or before December 20, 2016 and 4-6 Respondents' Memoranda on or before January 30, 2017. Readers will have nearly three weeks to review and rank each set of Memoranda. Volunteers may also register to rank final Claimant/Respondent Memoranda. To volunteer,
please follow this link
and select the appropriate boxes (cannot attend but will evaluate written memoranda).
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ILS Miami Vis Pre-Moot Competition
The
2017 Florida Bar ILS Miami Vis Pre-Moot Competition will be held on
Saturday, February 18, 2017 and will take place at
JAMS Miami Resolution Center, 600 Brickell Avenue, Suite 2600, Miami FL 33131. CLE credit will be available to volunteer arbitrators. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer arbitrator or have a team to register, please contact
Averil Andrews at
[email protected]
.
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Call for panel proposals for the ABA Section of International Law's Fall Conference in Miami
The
ABA Section of International Law
is calling for
panel proposals
for its
2017 Fall Conference
, which will take place on
October 24-28, 2017
, at the JW Marriott Marquis in Miami, Florida. All panel proposals should focus on the meeting's theme: "
Doing Business in the Americas in the New Global Economy: A New Dawn in the Hemisphere?
" Please relate your program proposals to the following:
Recent elections and transitions in countries such as the United States, Argentina, Brazil and Peru promise to bring change across the hemisphere. In the United States, for example, renegotiation or exit from free trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreements were the subject of the campaign by both parties. Beyond trade, globalization and the rising populist calls affect all aspects of cross border practice, from litigation and arbitration, rising consumer class actions, immigration, and transactional and regulatory work. While the United States may be shifting course towards increased protectionism, countries in Latin America, such as Argentina, Brazil and Peru, are rolling back the same policies and seeking to encourage foreign investment. At the same time, regional developments continue to fundamentally alter the economic and political landscape of the region, including, for example, Operation Car Wash in Brazil, the development of UNASUR, and rejection and renegotiation of a peace deal in Colombia. What do these developments mean for lawyers practicing law in the Americas from Alaska to Argentina across all disciplines? How are lawyers from outside the Hemisphere affected? The Conference will explore these questions from the perspective of multiple practice areas and regions.
For programming ideas centered on dispute resolution, please contact Ed Mullins ([email protected]). The ABA also has expressed a strong preference for panel ideas that discuss transaction-oriented issues.
For further details or questions, you may contact the ABA Section of International Law's 2017 Fall Meeting Co-Chair, Cristina Cardenas, at
[email protected]
.
The deadline to submit program proposals is January 11, 2017.
Proposals shall be submitted to Ed Mullins ([email protected])
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2d Circuit Joins 11th Circuit in Addressing Scope of "Reasoned Award"
By: Ava Borrasso, Miami*
The level of detail required in an arbitration award is determined in large part by the agreement of the parties with respect to whether the award is standard, reasoned or requires even greater specificity in the form of findings of fact and conclusions of law. The issue of what qualifies as a proper reasoned award has been the subject of some challenge. Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit applied the rationale previously set forth by the 11th Circuit on this issue.
In assessing the issue with respect to a challenge to an international arbitration award that was denied before the District court in the Southern District of New York, the Second Circuit reasoned:
[a] reasoned award is something more than a line or two of unexplained conclusions, but something less than full findings of fact and conclusions of law on each issue raised before the panel. A reasoned award sets forth the basic reasoning of the arbitral panel on the central issue or issues raised before it. It need not delve into every argument made by the parties. The award here satisfies that standard: while it does not provide a detailed rationale for each and every line of damages awarded, it does set forth the relevant facts, as well as the key factual findings supporting its conclusions. . . . No more is needed.
In reaching its determination, the Court relied substantially on the rationale set forth in other circuits including the Eleventh Circuit.
In Cat Charter, LLC v. Schurtenberger, 646 F.3d 836 (11th Cir. 2011), the Court addressed whether the arbitrators "exceeded their powers" under the Federal Arbitration Act when they failed to issue a "reasoned award" pursuant to the agreement of the parties. The arbitration had proceeded according to the Commercial Rules of the American Arbitration Association and when the Panel issued a unanimous, albeit brief, award, the losing party moved for vacatur claiming the Panel failing to satisfy the obligation to provide a "reasoned award." The district court agreed that the award was insufficient, vacated the award and declined to remand the case back to the Panel ruling the doctrine of functus officio precluded it from doing so.
On appeal, the Eleventh Circuit reversed and held that the award met the requisite standard:
Logically, the varying forms of awards may be considered along a "spectrum of increasingly reasoned awards," with a "standard award" requiring the least explanation and "findings of fact and conclusions of law" requiring the most. In this light, therefore, a "reasoned award is something short of findings and conclusions but more than a simple result." (internal citations omitted).
The Court determined that the award met the requisite standard finding "the Panel provided a detailed explanation for the only conclusion that truly required it" and specificity where needed, concluding:
In the present case, three validly-appointed arbitrators oversaw a five-day hearing and rendered a thoughtful, reasoned award. We decline to narrowly interpret what constitutes a reasoned award to overturn an otherwise apparently seamless proceeding. The parties received precisely what they bargained for - a speedy, fair resolution of a discrete controversy by an impartial panel of arbitrators skilled in the relevant areas of the law. To vacate the Award and remand for an entirely new proceeding would insufficiently respect the value of arbitration and inject the courts further into the arbitration process than Congress has mandated. As such, the Award should be confirmed and this controversy should be put to rest once and for all.
The Eleventh Circuit upheld the award under the facts before it and its rationale in doing so was recently adopted by the Second Circuit. The case in Leeward Construction Co. Ltd. v. American University of Antigua, No. 13-1708-cv (2d Cir. June 24, 2016).
*Ava Borrasso is the principal of Ava J Borrasso, P.A., a Miami-based law firm that concentrates on business and international arbitration and litigation. She also serves as an Arbitrator and is a member of the commercial panel of the American Arbitration Association.
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February 17, 2017
The
iLaw2017, the ILS Global Forum on International Law, newly rebranded from the former "ILAT", will be held on
February 17, 2017 at the Conrad Hotel in Miami. The iLaw2017 will include the International Center for Dispute Resolution's (ICDR) Arbitration Track. The Program Brochure will be out shortly, but in the meantime,
Save the Date!
February 18, 2017
The
2017 Florida Bar ILS Miami Vis Pre-Moot Competition
will be held on Saturday, February 18, 2017
and will take place at
JAMS Miami Resolution Center, 600 Brickell Avenue
, Suite 2600, Miami FL 33131. CLE credit will be available to volunteer arbitrators. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer arbitrator or have a team to register, please contact
Averil Andrews
at
[email protected]
.
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International Law Quarterly (ILQ)
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The
Fall 2016 ILQ - Special Cuba Edition is now available to view and download
here.
If you are interested in submitting an article in the next ILQ or have questions, please contact
Rafael Ribeiro:
[email protected].
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