Five International Arbitration Trends and Topics for 2024

There were many topics that captured the international arbitration community’s interest in 2023.

For example, the shift of production and manufacturing markets in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic – known as “nearshoring” – and related disputes dominated discussions.The viability of intra-EU investor-state arbitration also proved to be a hot topic for debate, particularly in light of states’ continued exodus from the Energy Charter Treaty and a recent decision from Germany’s Federal Court of Justice finding that parties could request a German court to declare an intra-EU ICSID arbitration incompatible with EU law before proceedings even commenced. We expect that 2024 similarly will herald a number of interesting developments in international arbitration.

This articles summarizes what are likely to be key trends and topics in international arbitration in 2024, including: (1) an influx of new arbitrations in the energy industry, including in the evolving LNG, lithium, and hydrogen sectors; (2) a renewed focus on arbitrator disclosures, which has resulted in disqualification attempts and challenges to awards as a result of alleged arbitrator bias; (3) different jurisdictions’ varying approaches with respect to allegations of corruption in post-award enforcement challenges; (4) new interest in the use of summary disposition procedures and bifurcation measures; and (5) upcoming reforms to national arbitration laws in important arbitration jurisdictions.

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