In recent years, technology advancement has introduced new methods for contract formation. In particular, the rise of blockchain technology has led to the emergence of “smart contracts”, which are digital contracts which...more
Our earlier Insight “LegCo in-house lawyers request clarifications regarding the Security of Payment Bill” reported that the Legal Service Division of the LegCo wrote a letter on 19 June 2024 to the HK Government seeking to...more
In P v D [2024] HKCFI 1123 (judgment date: 30 April 2024), the Hong Kong Court of First Instance dismissed an application, pursuant to section 26 of the Arbitration Ordinance, by the challenging party (“P”) to remove two...more
Parties to an arbitration only need to be given a "reasonable" opportunity to present their case and to address the cases of their opponents under the Hong Kong Arbitration Ordinance. So ruled the Honourable Justice Mimmie...more
The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal has granted leave to appeal in the case of C v D [2022] HKCFA 25, against last year's finding by the Court of Appeal that the validity of "escalation clauses" – multi-tiered dispute...more
Judicial comments cast doubt on the ability to compromise US law-governed debt effectively based on Chapter 15 recognition alone. A recent first instance decision in Hong Kong has highlighted an important...more
With a marked increase in large-scale cross-border insolvency and restructuring proceedings in the Cayman Islands and elsewhere, there is a greater focus on principles of comity and co-operation between courts and...more
The question of whether a party’s failure to comply with a mandatory step in a multi-tiered dispute resolution clause is an issue of “admissibility” or “jurisdiction” was a hot topic in the international arbitration sphere...more
香港原讼法庭连续两次在裁决中驳回撤销仲裁裁决时限延迟申请，在其中一案中暗示，“为整体司法利益起见”，有必要制定法律在此方面给予法院更多自由裁量权。...more
In AW and others v PY and another [2022] HKCFI 1397 (judgment date: 13 May 2022), a Hong Kong court held that it has no power to extend the time to challenge an arbitral award under Article 34 of the Model Law, as adopted by...more
In Arjowiggins HKK2 Ltd v X Co [2022] HKCFI 128, after dismissing the claims and declining to grant the pleaded remedy, the tribunal invited submissions from the parties on an alternative remedy and ultimately granted relief...more
In a recent anonymized judgment, the Hong Kong Court of First Instance held that compliance with an "escalation clause," a procedural requirement for the commencement of arbitration, was an issue to be decided by the arbitral...more
On May 14, 2021, the Department of Justice of the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region announced that the Secretary for Justice of Hong Kong and the Vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court (the...more
In Re Ando Credit Limited [2020] HKCFI 2775 (“Re Ando”), the Hong Kong Companies Court recently appointed provisional liquidators over a Hong Kong company, Ando Credit Limited, in novel circumstances with potentially...more
In Giorgio Armani SpA v Elan Clothes Co Ltd [2019] HKCFI 2983, the Hong Kong Court of First Instance granted a permanent anti-suit injunction against the defendant which had commenced proceedings against the plaintiffs in...more
The question of whether an arbitration clause has been successfully incorporated into a contract is one that has come before the courts regularly, with different jurisdictions taking different approaches to what counts as...more
Hong Kong has long occupied a favored position as a site of arbitration of contractual claims or disputes between Mainland Chinese and foreign parties, at least where the parties have not been able to agree on arbitration in...more
Multilateral conventions relating to arbitration - Is your jurisdiction a contracting state to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards? Since when has the Convention been in...more
In what has been a long-standing dispute comprising several applications before the courts of Singapore and Hong Kong, the Singapore High Court has rejected an application to refuse enforcement of an arbitral award for US$200...more
On 27 November 2017, the High Court of Hong Kong issued a judgment in which it again demonstrated its willingness to uphold an arbitration agreement, despite arguments that the arbitration agreement had been superseded by a...more
Differences in enforcement and arbitral rules could cause difficulties for unwary parties engaged in or considering arbitration in mainland China. China’s economic growth has attracted significant foreign investment in...more
Despite recent criticism from some quarters concerning the use of investment treaties and free trade agreements, the Chinese investment treaty system remains firmly in place. Since 1982, the People's Republic of China (PRC)...more
According to the 2015 International Arbitration Survey conducted by Queen Mary University of London, Hong Kong is the third most preferred seat of international commercial arbitration in the world, behind only Paris and...more
UNCITRAL’s Rules on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration (the Transparency Rules) present challenges to manage the costs of compliance while avoiding the consequences of non-compliance. Transparency in...more
International arbitration in Asia has seen a dramatic surge in popularity in recent times. It has grown up alongside an increase in cross-border investment within and from outside Asia. There are three key reasons for this...more