Opening remarks

This year started with arbitration in focus. The Norwegian Arbitration Day and the Nordic Arbitration Day held back-to-back over two days in Oslo in January. Together with the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC), BAHR hosted the pre-seminar discussion on the future of ad hoc and institutional arbitration in Norway. The topic provided for lively discussion. Whilst ad hoc is the most commonly used form of arbitration in Norway today, we see a shift towards more institutional arbitrations.

A large team from BAHR spent most of February in Stockholm representing a buyer in a post-M&A dispute involving a NOK 1,6 billion earn-out claim in an international arbitration under the SCC Rules. Meanwhile, our energy disputes-team acted for a seller under a long-term purchase and supply agreement for natural gas in a price review arbitration. Despite the increased use of hub-indexed price formulas in certain markets, the current volatility in the market sees continued activity in energy and price review arbitrations.

In this Dispute Resolution Insight we discuss two issues of current interest. Firstly, there are possible significant developments in third-party funding. Acting both for and against funded parties, we follow these developments with interest. As we see it, they are a sign that third-party funding is maturing as a concept in the Norwegian market.

In the second article, we summarise the past three years’ discussion on choice of law for arbitration clauses and consider the status under Norwegian law following the decision of the French Court of Cassation in Kabab-Ji SAL v. Kout Food Group, one year on from the decision of the UK Supreme Court in the same case.

We hope this issue provides an interesting read!

Atle J. Skaldebø-Rød Head of Dispute Resolution