In AB International (HK) Holdings Plc Ltd & Anor v AB Clearing Corporation Ltd & Ors [2015] EWHC 2196 (Comm), the English Commercial Court refused an application under section 44 for urgent interim relief in the way of advance disclosure of documents. The court found that what was really sought was that the court "provide a degree of expedition in the arbitration process by ordering advance disclosure of a category of documents, it being entirely unclear how that would impact on the ultimate timetable".

Argentina has filed a petition with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to vacate a Washington DC-seated UNCITRAL arbitration award of approximately US$20 million in favour of AWG Group Ltd (see Petition to Vacate Arbitration Award, AWG Group Ltd v. Republic of Argentina, No. 15-cv-01057 (July 6, 2015)). Argentina is challenging the award under section 10 of the Federal Arbitration Act on the grounds of "evident partiality" of one of the arbitrators. According to Argentina, the arbitrator, Professor Gabrielle Kauffman-Kohler, was partial because of her service as a director and shareholder of UBS, which was the largest investor in one of the AWG claimants. Under well-established US law, evident partiality will be found where a reasonable person would have to conclude that an arbitrator was partial to one party to the arbitration (see Practice Note, Challenges to arbitrators: United States).

In State Enterprise "Energorynok" (Ukraine) v. The Republic of Moldova, SCC Arbitration V 2012/175, a decision which dates back to January 2015 but has only recently been made public, a tribunal at the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC) declined jurisdiction. The tribunal found that the claimant did not meet the burden under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) that its money claim was associated with an investment made by the claimant or validly assigned to it.

The EU and Vietnam have announced their agreement, in principle, for a free trade agreement (FTA). The provisions on investment protection and dispute settlement are still being negotiated in light of the new EU approach on investment dispute settlement. However, the FTA will create a framework to resolve any future disagreements about the interpretation and implementation of the agreement (see Facts and figures: Free Trade Agreement between EU and Vietnam).