Mohammed Zaheeruddin

1. In general, all legal provisions governing different types of financial transactions provide certain levels of flexibility in order to ensure the attainment of financial balance and equality bet...

Arbitration offers a flexible and expedited mechanism for settling disputes between parties. To initiate arbitration proceedings, a valid arbitration agreement between the parties is required. In some types of contracts, such as financing, parties prefer to enter asymmetrical or hybrid arbitration clauses, allowing one party to choose between arbitration and/or litigation; the other party remains confined to a single option for dispute settlement. This provides one party with a greater advantage in lieu of certain concessions to the other party, leading to unequal treatment. This study concludes that each jurisdiction has treated asymmetric clauses differently, with conflicting decisions. In most jurisdictions, courts have enforced asymmetrical arbitration clauses as valid, considering that they suit parties’ situations and the nature of the contract. For successful enforcement, asymmetric arbitration clauses must be drafted carefully, limiting the jurisdictions under which the party benefiting from the asymmetric arbitration clause may bring claims, rather than granting unlimited jurisdiction.

Arbitration is the process to settle dispute between the parties speedily and with confidentiality. The arbitration rules provide mechanism for judicial review of arbitral award as a supervision over arbitral process by the state at the seat of arbitration. An award reached by an arbitrator pursuant to a contractual agreement to arbitrate is not subject to judicial review except on the grounds set forth in law. According to article UNCITRAL Model Law recourse to a court against an arbitral award may be made only by an application for setting aside in accordance with paragraphs (2) and (3) of Article 34 (1). The object of research is to examine the ground of annulment of an arbitral award by the courts in the process of judicial review. If an award is set aside, it has no effects in the country where it was vacated. If setting aside occurs in a country in which, or under the law of which the award was made, such setting aside may become a reason under the New York Convention for other contracting states to refuse to recognize and enforce the set aside award. A brief review of legal provisions and judicial decisions demonstrate that courts in different jurisdictions interfered with arbitral awards only in limited circumstances. The study recommends that the judicial review of arbitral award should be done only on the grounds set forth in the law.

This research investigated different nonlinear models, state estimation techniques and control strategies applied to rechargeable Li-ion batteries and electric motors powered and adapted to these batteries. The finality of these investigations was achieved by finding the most suitable design approach for the real-time implementation of the most advanced state estimators based on intelligent neural networks and neural control strategies. For performance comparison purposes, was chosen as case study an accurate and robust EKF state of charge (SOC) estimator built on a simple second-order RC equivalent circuit model (2RC ECM) accurate enough to accomplish the main goal. An intelligent nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous input (NARX) Shallow Neural Network (SSN) estimator was developed to estimate the battery SOC, predict the terminal voltage, and map the nonlinear open circuit voltage (OCV) battery characteristic curve as a function of SOC. Focusing on nonlinear modeling and linearization techniques, such as partial state feedback linearization, for “proof concept” and simulations purposes in the case study, a third order nonlinear model for a DC motor (DCM) drive was selected. It is a valuable research support suitable to analyze the performance of state feedback linearization, system singularities, internal and zero dynamics, and solving reference tracking problems.

Purpose: The arbitral awards are enforceable internationally under the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, 1958. The Convention provides the discretion to the courts in enforcing State either to enforce or reject the international arbitral awards. The award set aside at the seat of arbitration is not enforceable, however the courts in some jurisdictions enforced such awards. In this context the paper examines how the courts in different jurisdictions justified while enforcing the annulled awards. Theoretical framework: Arbitration mechanism is frequently used for settlement of international commercial disputes. It enables party autonomy in drafting arbitration agreements, choosing the applicable law and determining the arbitration seat. According to Article V (1)(e) of the New York Convention the national courts may refuse to recognize or enforce the foreign award if it was set aside or annulled at the seat of arbitration or under law of which such award was given. In some jurisdictions the enforcing courts considered the annulment procedure followed by the courts and if such procedure was unfair, the courts in enforcing country have agreed to enforce the set aside awards. Design/methodology/approach: The author followed the legal analysis method to examine the approach of the courts from different jurisdictions that have enforced the annulled foreign arbitral awards and the legal comparative method observed to study the judicial decisions from various jurisdictions. Findings: The study concludes that Article V (1) of the New York Convention gives discretionary power to the enforcing courts regarding enforcement of foreign arbitral award. Hence, the courts in some jurisdictions enforced the annulled award if the set aside procedure was unfair, based on local grounds, biased, violated basic norms of justice, against the parties’ agreement or applied domestic law instead of the New York Convention. To secure the enforcement of award, the parties to the arbitration may agree that the arbitral award is not subject to challenge in any court at the arbitration seat or in the state in which the award is enforced and prefer a pro-arbitration State as a seat of arbitration. Research, Practical & Social implications: The study provides practical guidance to the arbitrating parties in drafting arbitration agreements to ensure the enforcement of an arbitration award internationally. Originality/value: The research on enforcement of annulled award under the New York Convention immensely helpful in guiding the arbitration parties in drafting the arbitration agreement, choosing arbitration procedure and seat of arbitration.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented situation all over the world, ocmpelled the governments to declare lockdown, closing of businesses, industries, commercial activities, ban on certain imports and exports. Under these circumstances, an obligor may not be able to perform his contractual obligations, consequently may result in breach of contract. In case of claim of damages by the obligee for breach of contract, the obligor may seek exemption from damages under the law of impediment or force majeure. According to Article 79 of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods 1980 (CISG), a party is not liable for damages due to non-performance, delay or defect in performance, if he can prove that the failure was due to an impediment beyond his control. The COVID-19 situations are beyond the control of the parties to the contract, must be considered as an impediment or force majeure and the non-performing party is entitled for exemption from damages under Article 79 of CISG.

A dynamic model of a hybrid hydronic heating system has been developed. The overall model consists of a boiler, a heat exchanger, a ground loop heat pump, a ground loop heat exchanger, baseboard heaters (convector–radiators), and radiant floor hydraulic piping system. Two control strategies for improving the overall system performance were explored: (1) a conventional proportional-integral (PI) control and (2) an adaptive gain control. The simulation results showed that the performance of the adaptive controller is better than the fixed gain PI controller in disturbance rejection and stability. Energy simulations under three different operating strategies were conducted: (1) a fixed set-point PI control, (2) an outdoor air temperature reset control, and (3) an optimal set-point adaptive PI control. It was shown that the outdoor temperature reset strategy can save 4.5 and 19.9% energy under cold day and mild day conditions compared to the fixed set-point PI control strategy. The optimal adaptive PI control strategy resulted in higher energy savings of 6.6 and 22% as compared to the PI control under cold and mild day conditions, respectively. Practical application: Energy efficiency and sustainability are a major issue of importance in the design and operation of space heating systems. The proposed hybrid system combines a ground-source heat pump and a hot water boiler for space heating of both residential and commercial building applications. The heating system consists of radiant floor piping for the residential zones and hot water baseboard heaters (convector–radiators) for the commercial zones. An energy optimal adaptive control strategy is designed to improve energy efficiency and temperature control performance of the hybrid system. The control strategy is simple and can be implemented on the existing building control systems.