International trade law

A finance department asks what an ICC arbitration costs for a 3 million dollar dispute. The honest answer is two

A Lyon engineering company filed its request for arbitration on 12 June 2026, under an ICC clause signed in 2022.

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Three competing regimes govern foreign decisions in France. Which one applies, what the court actually reviews, and why the location of the assets decides the outcome.

The thirty days of observations, the three-year challenge, the two months to go to court, and how to defer payment against guarantees under the recodified Customs Code.

Non-preferential and preferential origin are separate regimes. How origin is acquired, why the importer carries the risk, and how far back an assessment can reach.

Force majeure is about impossibility, hardship about ruinous cost. Why monetary debts escape both, what sanctions do and do not extinguish, and what the clause must say.

The CISG applies unchosen, a French court applies the Hague Convention of 1955 and not Rome I, and the battle of the forms is decided by the last document sent.

The agent’s indemnity is mandatory, but two traps defeat most claims: the one-year notification running from the end of the notice period, and the foreign law clause.

The five banking day rule, what makes a refusal valid under Article 16 of UCP 600, when the bank is precluded and must pay, and what to do when the discrepancies are real.