is backing a Russian businessman's efforts to use U.S. racketeering law to enforce a $92 million arbitral award, telling the on Wednesday that the award debtor's conduct risks causing "very serious damage" to the international arbitration system. Bermann, a noted expert on international arbitration who is the Walter Gellhorn professor of law and Jean Monnet professor of law at Columbia Law School, urged the high court in an amicus brief to affirm a Ninth Circuit decision that revived a racketeering lawsuit initiated by Vitaly Ivanovich Smagin, a Russian businessman who accuses a Monaco bank of ..read more

, the Walter Gellhorn professor of law and Jean Monnet professor of European Union law at Columbia Law School, submitted an expert declaration for NextEra to the D.C. court. He told Law360 this week that he thinks Judge Leon's decision could well be overturned. "I don't see why we have to bow and scrape to the EU and apply its law to determine whether these treaties are valid," he told Law360. "I know the argument is that it's an intra-EU treaty, and therefore EU law is most affected. I understand that argument, [but] I'm a little shocked that it's just assumed that EU law, rather than, say, i ..read more

used a keynote lecture in Prague to call for a critical reappraisal of most-favoured nation clauses in investment treaties, arguing they do not achieve their objectives and should be eliminated ..read more

The president of Ukraine appointed Patrick W. Pearsall ’05 as an academic adviser on these issues. In addition to Pearsall, who will serve as the ICRP’s director, five senior fellows will guide the project: Columbia Law School Professors , Lori F. Damrosch, and Matthew C. Waxman, as well as Professor Chiara Giorgetti from the University of Richmond School of Law and international law expert Jeremy K. Sharpe. Dozens of international scholars acting in their personal capacities will assist the ICRP ..read more

The 14th Columbia Arbitration Day took place in the historic Low Library at Columbia University on 14 April. An early highlight was a fireside chat on innovating investor-state dispute settlement between , secretary of UNCITRAL, and , secretary general of ICSID, which was moderated by of Columbia Law School. The discussion highlighted the increased competition between ICSID and UNCITRAL, the challenges of the rule revision processes and the ongoing work of UNCITRAL Working Group III.  ..read more

On April 13, Columbia Law students attended an intimate fireside chat with Breyer and faculty members who had clerked for him: Kathryn Judge, Christina D. Ponsa-Kraus, Thomas P. Schmidt, and Timothy Wu. The following day, he joined Professor for a keynote conversation that was the capstone of the Law School’s International Arbitration Association’s annual ..read more

More than 100 Columbia Law School alumni and colleagues contributed essays to ..read more

A group of arbitration scholars and practitioners is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to conclude that U.S. law allows federal courts to order discovery for private commercial arbitration abroad, saying Congress specifically meant to include such proceedings within the law's scope. The group, which included Columbia Law School professor George A. Bermann, who also directs its Center for International Commercial and Investment Arbitration, told the justices in an amicus brief filed on Wednesday that the Second Circuit wrongly made a distinction between private and treaty-based arbitration when it ..read more

"The arbitration community — particularly the international arbitration community — regards him as the international arbitration authority on the court," said George A. Bermann, Gellhorn professor of law and Monnet professor of European Union law at Columbia Law School . "He, more than any other justice, recently has committed resources to important decisions in the area of international arbitration, so he is important to us. He distinguishes himself to us on that ground ..read more

In an article published this month in the American Review of International Arbitration, Columbia Law School professor George A. Bermann wrote that the Second Circuit was "wholly unjustified in treating the parties' submission of the arbitrability question to the tribunal as clear and unmistakable evidence of a delegation ..read more