Moral damages are an exceptional remedy in investment arbitration. Indeed, the dispute resolution mechanism has developed to protect economic rather than personal interests. Nevertheless, in some cases investment tribunals have awarded moral damages on top of compensation for commercial loss. These cases include exposure of investors to acts of egregious behaviour totally unacceptable in a civilised society, e.g. physical attacks on investors and/or their employees. Investment jurisprudence dealing with moral damages lacks uniformity and, therefore, it is impossible to portray a typical investment case where moral damages are recoverable. However, certain guidelines can be extracted from the cases analysed in the article. The article offers practical recommendations on evaluation of the prospects of success of claims for moral damages and gives a number of tips on presentation of evidence and managing the process.

The article analyses English case law and points out that for quite a while English courts have acknowledged that decisions (even those made by trained professionals) may be irrational in some cases. The article calls for the development of a systematic approach that could help to solve this problem.

This article brings to the readers' attention several particular subconscious 'blinders' together with their potential implications in the field of dispute resolution and offers practical recommendations in relation thereto from both the counsel and judge/arbitrator perspective.
The article does not aim to provide the readers with an exhaustive theoretical background of the psychology of decision-making. Instead, it will put into the spotlight only 'blinders' that (1) are likely to emerge in dispute resolution; (2) are easy to explain and exemplify without going too deeply into psychology; (3) suggest very concrete practical inferences; and (4) can be used to produce tips for practitioners.
Finally, it is suggested that it may be the time to rethink the approach to dispute resolution by taking more account of non-legal influences affecting disputes' outcomes, which might in some cases be as influential as blackletter law.

Criticising an arbitrator for an erroneous award we often overlook effects of surreptitious but influential mechanisms employed by unconscious mind.

The "black box" of the human mind is explored less than many people would guess and much less than it deserves. Even scientists specialising in this sphere have very limited knowledge about how thoughts are processed and how decisions are made. One of the means to obtaining an insight into this deep and mysterious process is the observation of repeating patterns of irrational behaviour that many people often follow. The process is two-way: on the one hand, the fact of human irrationality makes it possible to construct thought "road-maps", on the other hand, an understanding of thinking processes allows us to predict and to some extent to avoid irrationality. Rational decision-making is crucial for the functioning of many aspects of human society including dispute resolution. The progress made from trial by battle to international arbitration cannot be overestimated, but even the latter is not completely free from non-legal influences. Subconscious biases are among them. The good news is that such biases are predictable and as such can in principle be avoided. This article observes the most influential theories dealing with the concealed thought processes and their implications for arbitral decision-making. This is followed by a study of the CME v Czech Republic and Lauder v Czech Republic awards. These cases are based on essentially the same factual and legal background but, nevertheless, the tribunals' decisions are vastly different. The theoretical background is applied to the pair of awards and hypotheses are made that subconscious biases might have to a certain extent conditioned the discrepancies in the outcomes.

Article concerning contractual consequences of international sanctions for international sale-and-purchase contracts.

Article concerning implications of the US and EU sanctions for the Russian and global business climate from a legal standpoint (co-authored).

Article concerning problems of consolidated execution proceedings in Russia.

Mini-article concerning contractual consequences of adoption of import ban on selected goods

Mini-article concerning new order of appealing Arbitrage courts' decisions in the Supreme court (so called "second cassation") (co-authored).