International arbitration is well suited to the needs of the global business community when cross-border commercial or investment disputes arise. The flexible procedure, depth of sector expertise of arbitrators and enforceability of arbitral awards are all key reasons why you may decide to opt for arbitration. If you do, you are likely to want the skills of experienced arbitration lawyers, not only to handle any subsequent arbitrations that may arise, but also to draft your arbitration clauses in the pre-contract stage or to assist you in structuring your foreign investments in ways that enable you to benefit from the protections afforded by investment treaties.

Our International Arbitration Group is made up of lawyers across many jurisdictions who have extensive knowledge of both arbitration and the sectors most frequently involved in arbitration, including insurance, energy, construction, engineering and TMT. We are accustomed to dealing with the various arbitral bodies and their differing procedures such as ICC, LCIA, AAA-ICDR, UNCITRAL, ICSID and many others. Our lawyers are aware of the need to manage the arbitral process efficiently so as to meet your commercial objectives. We have a proven track record of advising and representing clients in arbitrations arising from a broad range of commercial transactions and investor-State disputes under various bilateral investment treaties and the Energy Charter Treaty. A number of our arbitration lawyers also act as arbitrators.

Our multi-jurisdictional reach, through our offices in Central and Eastern Europe and our membership of CMS, an alliance of nine major independent law firms operating in over 47 business cities throughout the world, matches the widespread international use of arbitration and ensures you are supported by experienced local counsel and international arbitration lawyers at all stages of the arbitral process. Our lawyers frequently work as a team across multiple jurisdictions to facilitate the efficient handling of the process, in particular in complex international disputes.

Relevant experience includes advising:

• International LNG supplier – defending a US$4.5bn claim relating to a price review dispute under a series of three extremely high volume long term liquid natural gas contracts supplying well over 50% of the entire natural gas consumed and to be consumed by a large European country over the next 20 years; UNCITRAL
• The Romanian state – in a US$147m investment treaty arbitration, involving multiple privatisation, post-privatisation, taxation, criminal procedure, food safety and capital repatriation matters; ICSID
• Privatised Eastern European steel mill - defending a US$50m claim by a UK joint venture company in a dispute over the pricing of import/export contracts; ICC
• Hungarian commercial bank – defending a claim arising out of a disputed €50m investor option to acquire shares in a regional commercial bank prior to merger; LCIA
• Major North American Life Reinsurance Companies - in connection with a number of different significant reinsurance treaty disputes arising out of the $2billion market wide problems generated in connection with the well publicised PA LMX and Unicover issues; Ad hoc

CMS Guide to Arbitration

CMS has published its guide to arbitration both as hard copy and online. It brings together in one publication the national arbitration laws in 30 countries including leading European arbitration centres, China, the Middle East and South America. The Guide provides a detailed overview over the law and practice of arbitration in 30 jurisdictions in Europe and beyond.