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Founded in 2012, Signature Litigation has grown into one of London’s pre-eminent specialist dispute resolution practices. From the outset, we set out to do things differently: a conflict-free, disputes-only platform designed to give clients the undivided focus and strategic agility that complex, high-stakes matters demand.
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Established in 2017, Signature Litigation's Gibraltar office was founded to address growing demand for specialist expertise in commercial litigation and private wealth disputes on the Rock.
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Signature Litigation AARPI houses one of France’s most enviable product liability practices, with the team also handling commercial and corporate litigation, insurance and reinsurance, toxic tort and ESG, civil fraud and asset tracing, international arbitration, administrative and public law.
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Frankfurt has emerged as one of Europe's foremost financial and commercial centres and, increasingly, as a bridge between European and Asian markets. With that growth comes an increasing demand for sophisticated dispute resolution. Signature Litigation established its Frankfurt office to meet this need, bringing our conflict-free, disputes-only platform to the German market.
FIND OUT MOREPartner Flore Poloni and Associate Thibaud Roujou de Boubée examine breach of international public policy, discussing violations of foreign overriding mandatory rules and to what extent compliance with an embargo forms part of French international public policy in the ICC Dispute Resolution Bulletin. A link to the ICC Dispute Resolution Bulletin can be found here.
On 13 April 2021, the Paris Court of Appeal refined its developing case law on breach of public policy. It recalled that violations of foreign overriding mandatory rules amount to a breach of international public policy when ‘values and principles’ protected by such rules are also protected by French public policy. It also identified to which extent compliance with an embargo forms part of French international public policy.
1. Factual background
Two contracts for the supply of equipment and services relating to the protection of the Republic of Guinea’s presidential residences and intelligence services (the ‘Contracts’) were signed on 11 January 2011 by Belgian company AD Trade and the Ministry of National Defense of Guinea. Following the unilateral termination of the Contracts and non-payment of invoices by Guinea, AD Trade initiated arbitration proceedings on 8 October 2015 under the ICC Arbitration Rules. In an award rendered on 22 November 2017, the arbitral tribunal granted AD Trade’s claim and on 17 May 2018.
In its annulment request before the Paris Court of Appeal, Guinea alleged a breach of local procurement legislation - considered as overriding mandatory rules - and a breach of European Union (‘EU’) embargo on the sale of arms to Guinea. This case gave the Paris Court of Appeal an opportunity to confirm the scope of French international public policy when it comes to foreign overriding mandatory rules and EU embargoes.
Read the full article in the ICC Dispute Resolution Bulletin, here.
