Academic articles

Newspaper

El arte de la mediación (2024)

Newspaper

El arte de la mediación (2023)

Newspaper

La maldición de conocer el resultado (2024)

Newspaper

Errores de retrospectiva en sentencias y laudos (2024)

Newspaper

Teoría del caso-La perspectiva del árbitro (2023)

Newspaper

¿Tienen ombligo los árbitros? (2023)

Newspaper

“Experiencia europea en arbitrajes de inversiones intra-EU” (2022)

Newspaper

La falacia de la Guerra de los 30 años (2022)

Newspaper

Diferencias entre arbitraje y mediación (2022)

Newspaper

¿Son los árbitros salomónicos? (2021)

Newspaper

Los riesgos de la anulación de laudos y la doctrina del Tribunal Constitucional (2021)

Newspaper

Final Offer Arbitration (2021)

Newspaper

Sócrates, el béisbol y las ofertas finales (2021)

Newspaper

The Future of Money (2020)

Newspaper

El secreto de las discrepancias (2020)

Newspaper

¿Cómo debe un tribunal enfrentarse a los sesgos cognitivos? (2020)

Newspaper

Nicholson en el TSJ de Madrid (2020)

Newspaper

Time-travel riddles in the assessment of damages (2020)

Newspaper

El gobierno de las instituciones arbitrales-Mejorando, que es gerundio (2018)

Newspaper

Geopolitics of Energy and Game Theory (2019)

Newspaper

Time warps in the assessment of risks. Mathematics and Economic Sciences in International Arbitration. Vienna Arbitration Day (2019)

Newspaper

Quantum and pricing issues in disputes along the LNG project life cycle (2018)

Newspaper

“El arbitraje en España”, prólogo del Primer Estudio de Arbitraje de la Universidad de Comillas, la Asociación de Corporate Counsels y Roca Junyent, dirigido por Marlen Estévez (2018)

Newspaper

XI CONFERENCIA DE ARBITRAJE INTERNACIONAL – El coste de la inversion en la valoración del daño por expropiación (2018)

Newspaper

VALUE ENGINEERING IN THE FIDC CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT (2018)

(Manuel Conthe’s contribution to “International Construction Law” (Second Edition), by Lukas Klee, editor, iley&Son, 2018. )

The great pole vaulter Sergei Bubka became famous in 1983 when, still under 20, he got the gold medal in the World Championship in Helsinki with a mark of 5,70 meters. After this early victory, he went on to win the six following championships, remained the leading male pole vaulter in the world for more than two decades and broke his own world record as many as 35 times. In July 1985 he broke through the 6-meter barrier…

Newspaper

5 CONFERENCIA DE LA CCI EN MIAMI SOBRE ARBITRAJE INTERNACIONAL – How to avoid double counting? (2017)

Ponente, Sesión de Formación Avanzada: Valoración de los daños por los árbitros. Nov 5 2017.

Newspaper

THE ROLE OF SUNK INVESTMENT COSTS IN CALCULATING DAMAGES (2017)

(Manuel Conthe, Houston, November 30, 2017) 

  1. I. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO DAMAGES 

Depending on the circumstances, two alternative approaches may be appropriate to assess the pecuniary damages resulting from a wrongful action or non-contractual performance:

  • An expenditure-revenue approach, focused on the increase in costs and reduction in revenues.
  • An asset valuation approach, focused on the value of the asset expropriated, terminated or destroyed…

Newspaper

PAULSSON’S NIRVANA FALLACY (2017)

(Manuel Conthe, Spain Arbitration Review N.o 29/2017, June 2017, p.43-60) 

In January 2017, at the very end of his dissenting vote in ICSID case “Supervisión y Control S.A. v. Republic of Costa Rica” (ARGB /12/4), Joseph P. Klock, a Miami-based American lawyer appointed as co-arbitrator by the Spanish claimant and participating for the first time in an ICSID case, wrote the following:

“The arrangement whereby two of the panel members are selected by the parties to the agreement creates an uncomfortable aura of conflict which permeates, in my view, the proceedings. It creates a true ethical burden on these other two parties to separate themselves from the interest of those who have selected them to serve. I know that I have worked hard to neutralize this factor as I am sure my esteemed colleague, Co- Arbitrator Silva Romero, has done.” ……..

Newspaper

Técnicas de persuasión en arbitraje internacional – El método “Aristóteles +” (2017)

Manuel Conthe para CC Young Arbitrators Forum, Madrid, 5 de abril de 2017

 

“Efecto guacamole”

El Sr. Sanders regresaba una noche en su coche de una celebración prenavideña cuando se saltó un stop y chocó contra un camión de la basura.

Ningún testigo presenció el accidente y no hubo prueba de alcoholemia. Los abogados del camionero alegaron en juicio que Sanders estaba borracho y presentaron un testigo que le había visto en la fiesta y que declaró:

“Cuando el Sr. Sanders se dirigía hacia la salida, chocó con una mesa y tiró al suelo un cuenco”.

Si hubiera añadido

“…un cuenco con guacamole, que se desparramó sobre la moqueta blanca”.

habría sido más probable que el jurado creyera que conducía borracho

Fuente: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1980 “Judgmental Biases Resulting From Differing Availabilities of Arguments” Robert M. Reyes, William C. Thompson, and Gordon H. Bower

 

El método de “Aristóteles +”

Newspaper

Expropiaciones: métodos de determinación de daños (2016)

Seminario sobre Determinación y Prueba de Daños. 7 de abril de 2016

Newspaper

Swaps de intereses: la sentencia del TSJ de Madrid de 28 de enero (2015)

Este artículo analiza la sentencia del Tribunal Superior de Justicia (TSJ) de Madrid de 28 de enero de 2015, que anuló un laudo arbitral de 14 de enero de 2014 sobre una permuta financiera (swap) de tipos de interés concertada en enero de 2008 entre una pequeña empresa de hostelería y el BBVA. Concluye que la sentencia es arbitraria y vulnera el artículo 41 de la Ley de Arbitraje

Newspaper

Conflicts of interest and disclosure duties of non-Martian arbitrators (2014)

Arbitrators are not disembodied spirits dwelling on Mars, who descend to earth to arbitrate a case and then immediately return to their Martian retreat to await inertly the call to arbitrate another. Like other professionals living and working in the world, arbitrators have a variety of complex connections with all sorts of persons and institutions. It has been asserted by some scholars that there are only “six degrees of separation” between one person and any other person on earth. The theory of six degrees of separation holds that if a person is one step or “degree” away from each person he or she knows, and two steps or two degrees away from each person known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is an average of six steps or six degrees away from each person on the globe. While the validity of this theory certainly remains to be proven, its application does demonstrate how easily one may make connections between one person and another through the process of identifying real or alleged links.”

Anuario Latinoamericano de Arbitraje nº3

Newspaper

The case for remission techniques in ICSID (2013)

The use of procedures of remand is a common feature of civil procedure systems which is seldom used in arbitration, even though remand of an arbitral award achieves greater economic efficiency than its annulment. This is especially true in respect of the high value and complex disputes that are arbitrated under the auspices of ICSID. In this paper, the authors argue that procedures of remand could correct some of the inefficiencies created by the ICSID annulment system by preserving the validity of costly and time consuming awards that would otherwise be annulled.

Latin American Journal of International Trade Law, Vol. 1, Issue 2, Year 2013

Newspaper

The Art & Science of Persuasion (2012)

8th ITA Workshop, Santiago de Chile, April 2012

Newspaper

Inside Arbitrators’ Minds (2011)

Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” gets “inside the architecture of the mind”. Can we do the same with arbitrators?

Arbitrators are as likely as any other profession to fall victim to “cognitive biases” that influence their decision making, says Manuel Conthe. GAR, January 2011

Newspaper

The Financial Crisis and “toxic” Retail Derivatives: Fraud by Hindsight or Mis-selling? (2010)

A Tribunal or arbitration panel may occasionally be trapped by a decision paradox when taking a simple, dichotomous final decision (e.g. accept/reject; condemn/acquit…) on a complex case involving two or more independent issues: the way in which the voting is organized – i.e. either issue-by-issue or by final outcome- may change the collective decision. Furthermore, if a majority vote is taken on the final decision, it may be impossible to base the resulting ruling on a set of reasons supported by a majority of members; but if majority voting is applied on each independent issue, the final logical conclusion from these intermediate findings may be rejected by a majority of members.

Spain Arbitration Review. Nº8/2010

Newspaper

MAJORITY DECISIONS IN COMPLEX ARBITRATION CASES: THE ROLE OF ISSUE-BY-ISSUE VOTING (2010)

A Tribunal or arbitration panel may occasionally be trapped by a decision paradox when taking a simple, dichotomous final decision (e.g. accept/reject; condemn/acquit…) on a complex case involving two or more independent issues: the way in which the voting is organized – i.e. either issue-by-issue or by final outcome- may change the collective decision. Furthermore, if a majority vote is taken on the final decision, it may be impossible to base the resulting ruling on a set of reasons supported by a majority of members; but if majority voting is applied on each independent issue, the final logical conclusion from these intermediate findings may be rejected by a majority of members.

Spain Arbitration Review. 8/2010

Newspaper

COGNITIVE BIASES IN LEGAL DECISION MAKING (2010)

IBA Annual Meeting, “The Art and Science of Persuasion”. Vancouver (Canada), October 4, 2010