Month: June 2018

By Michel Nassar (Saas Avocats)

On 9 September 2017, Lebanon passed Law No. 48 “Regulating Public Private Partnerships” (“PPP Law”) ahead of the CEDRE Conference (acronym in French for “Economic Conference for Development, through Reforms and with the Businesses”) held in Paris on 6 April 2018. This conference brought USD 11 billion of funding for Lebanon’s infrastructure which is in a critical state.

This most awaited law is based on a draft prepared in 2010 by the Lebanese High Council for Privatization and Public Private Partnership (“PPP”). The law was finally enacted just in time for the CEDRE Conference. As PPP is the preferred vehicle for foreign investments, the new law paves the way for a more prevalent choice for arbitration as dispute resolution mechanism.

Continue reading Arbitration under the Lebanese Public Private Partnership Law

by Carmine A. Pascuzzo S. (ADM & Asociados, Caracas) 

This post focuses on two decisions issued by the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice in the Corporación LSR case. The decisions constitute an unexpected change in the approach of the Supreme Court towards arbitration, deviating from its latest and vastly commented case law regarding commercial arbitration matters.

Background

The dispute in Corporación LSR arose out of an option contract that contained a pathological arbitration clause, in that the clause referred all future disputes to arbitration under the rules of a non-existing arbitration institution: the Conciliation and Arbitration Centre of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Continue reading A one-two punch to the Kompetenz-Kompetenz principle in Venezuela