On 16 May 2016, the award on jurisdiction and admissibility in Philip Morris Asia Limited v The Commonwealth of Australia (UNCITRAL), PCA Case No. 2012-12, was published. In the award dated 17 December 2015, a tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) decided that the initiation of the arbitration constituted an abuse of rights rendering the claims inadmissible. Therefore, the tribunal was precluded from exercising jurisdiction over Philip Morris Asia's (PMA) challenge to Australia's Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 (see Legal update, Arbitration news round-up to 23 December 2015). We will provide further analysis of the award shortly.

In United Utilities (Tallinn) B.V. and another v Republic of Estonia (ICSID Case No. ARB/14/24), an ICSID tribunal has granted in part provisional measures requested by Estonia under Article 47 of the ICSID Convention to prevent the publication by the claimant of arbitration documents. The order is intended to prevent the exacerbation of the dispute between the parties. We will provide further analysis shortly.

In In re the Application of TJAC Waterloo, LLC, (N.D. Ind. Apr. 27, 2016), the US District Court for the Northern District of Indiana considered whether US federal courts may grant discovery in aid of arbitrations seated outside the US under 28 USC Section 1782. The court had to determine whether an expert determination in London involving an international construction dispute was "a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal" under the statute. While courts in the US are divided on the applicability of section 1782 to arbitrations, the court in this case sided with those decisions holding that the statute was not applicable to private commercial arbitrations.

On 18 May 2016, the launch of the Equal Representation in Arbitration (ERA) Pledge took place at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer offices in London. The Pledge seeks to increase, on an equal opportunity basis, the number of women appointed as arbitrators in order to achieve a fair representation as soon as practically possible, with the ultimate goal of full parity.

The Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration (KLRCA) and the Bangladesh International Arbitration Centre (BIAC) have signed a collaboration agreement to promote co-operation between the two institutions in the area of arbitration and alternative dispute resolution.

As the 2015-16 session of parliament has ended in England and Wales, the Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill [HL] 2015-16 will make no further progress in this session. The Bill proposes amendments to various statutes, including the Arbitration Act 1996, regarding the application of equality legislation to arbitration and mediation services.