INTRODUCTION Contributed by: Gary Born and Matteo Angelini, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
Global Overview – International Arbitration 2025 The international arbitration landscape continues to be dominated by macroeconomic and geopolitical factors. After a series of economic shocks in recent years, the global economy is facing a new threat: a burgeoning trade war thrown into sharp relief follow - ing the announcement of sweeping US tariffs in April 2025. Since then, some tariffs have been put on pause, but the global economic landscape remains dominated by a profound sense of policy uncertainty, growing concerns over slower growth in major economies, and global inflationary pressures that have proven to be more persistent than originally anticipated. Macro - economic uncertainty has combined with geopolitical events (including the rise of nationalism and protec - tionist policies, the use of sanctions against Russia and the Middle Eastern crisis) to present serious sup - ply chain challenges and create a highly volatile and uncertain business environment. This has led to a proliferation of disputes across a wide range of sectors. The areas that are seeing the most disputes are construction, mining, transport and energy; ones in which arbitration has historically been the preferred dispute resolution mechanism. Against this backdrop, it is unsurprising that most leading arbitral institutions reported a record – or close-to- record – caseload over the past year in terms of both the number of disputes referred to arbitration and the value of those disputes. The Russia-Ukraine War and Israel-Iran War As the world began to emerge from the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 triggered another large-scale humanitarian crisis. The Russia-Ukraine war, which has continued into 2025, has caused a massive upheaval in people’s lives and businesses across the globe. The effect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the arbi - tration landscape has changed over time. Initially, in 2022, there was a sharp decline in the number of Russia-related arbitrations as reported by the Lon - don Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) and other major institutions. The ensuing disruptions, howev - er, have triggered a large number of Russia-related
disputes. This is because, since the invasion, many businesses have been forced to cease operations in Russia or have seen their operations taken over by the Russian government. Since then, several large companies including Carls - berg, Fortum and Uniper either commenced, or con - firmed that they intend to commence, treaty claims against Russia for expropriation. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has also triggered a large number of com - mercial arbitrations, especially in the mining, com - modities and energy sectors as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing sanctions has made the per - formance of numerous existing commercial contracts more difficult and, in some cases, impossible. This has resulted in a wave of commercial arbitrations as parties seek to enforce, suspend or terminate Russia- related contracts. In 2025, Naftogaz, Ukraine’s larg - est national oil and gas company, and Net4Gas, the Czech Republic’s gas transmission system operator, secured billion-dollar awards against Gazprom over its failure to make monthly payments under their gas transportation contracts. Global sanctions against Russia and the anti-arbitra - tion stance of the Russian courts have created com - plications for parties bringing claims against Russian sanctioned entities. Article 248 of the Russian Arbi - trazh Procedure Code grants Russian courts exclusive jurisdiction over disputes involving sanctioned Rus - sian entities. In 2024, it was invoked over 200 times to override exclusive jurisdiction clauses and/or to issue anti-arbitration injunctions. This stance has resulted in courts in both common and civil law jurisdictions ordering anti-suit relief against Russian proceedings. In June 2025, the conflict between Israel and Iran escalated into a full-scale military confrontation as geopolitical tensions resurfaced in the Middle East. The military confrontation has caused supply chain disruptions as shipping, flight and trade routes were suspended and many UAE-based businesses activat - ed contingency measures. These disruptions are likely to trigger a new wave of international trade-related disputes that will be referred to arbitration.
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