Proposal for General License Authorizing Private Commercial Arbitration Proceedings Involving Blocked Persons

The International Commercial Disputes Committee and the Arbitration Committee joined with several U.S. business and arbitration institutions to call upon the U.S. Treasury Department s Office of Foreign Assets Control to issue a general license permitting U.S. persons, subject to certain conditions, to perform services related to private commercial arbitration proceedings involving parties whose property and interests in property are blocked, on the same terms as existing general licenses related to litigation involving blocked persons in U.S. courts and administrative agencies.  The letter states, We respectfully submit that international arbitral proceedings should be treated in parity with U.S. judicial and administrative proceedings, which are covered by existing general licenses. Arbitration should not be a uniquely disadvantaged form of dispute resolution. Moreover, the existing litigation general licenses are well-understood by the legal community, have proven themselves workable, and can readily be extended to arbitral proceedings.