Key takeaways

• On July 19, 2016, in CEEG (Shanghai) Solar Science & Technology Co., Ltd. v. LUMOS LLC n/k/a/ LUMOS Solar LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision, declining to confirm a China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission ("CIETAC") arbitral award because the notice of arbitration was in Chinese.
• Applying U.S. standards of due process, the Court of Appeals held that the Chinese-language notice was not reasonably calculated to inform the U.S. respondent of the arbitral proceedings and thus did not constitute "proper notice" under the New York Convention.
• The CEEG v. LUMOS decision underscores the need to ensure that the notice of arbitration satisfies the due process standards of the jurisdiction(s) where confirmation of the award is sought, in addition to the requirements of the institutional rules and curial law of the arbitration.