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Europe
BAC Focus: Lord Woolf speak out again！
Editor’s note: The former Chief Justice Lord Woolf is the leading pioneer in the Civil Judicial Reform in British legal industry, who is also regarded as a person of milestones in promoting the ADR development. In March 1994, Lord Woolf was appointed by the Secretariat of Justice to conduct a comprehensive review on the civil procedures of England and Wales. He published a famous research report called Access to Justice (For more details, please refer to http://www.law.warwick.ac.uk/woolf/report ) in July 1996. In this report, he has proposed many unique and inspiring suggestions, encouraging parties to resolve their disputes by ADR. Therefore, court litigation would only be the last resort of settling disputes. He also suggested the insertion of ADR method into new rules of civil proceedings. This should define the legal status of ADR and the court is required to provide ADR information to the parties. Now, the honorable Lord Woolf speaks out again, for the international arbitration had lost its way’ …
Woolf calls for arbitration overhaul as he launches new guidance
Thursday 3 December 2009 by Catherine Baksi
International arbitration has ‘lost its way’. The former lord chief justice Lord Woolf launched a set of guidelines which will build mediation into the arbitration process. Woolf co-chaired, with Swiss lawyer Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler, an international commission for the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) to examine how the international arbitration process could be improved. It launched the new guidelines at CEDR’s arbitration conference in London last week.
The guidance will streamline proceedings at a time when there has been a marked increase in disputes. It includes a “mediation window” to be inserted into arbitral proceedings to make it easier for parties to come to a settlement in international arbitrations. This would enable proceedings to be adjourned so that mediation can take place at the request of the parties. The guidance allows an arbitrator, with the parties’ permission, to give a preliminary view on the merits and issues in the case and the evidence required for a party to prevail. The guidance also recommends that the parties themselves should attend the initial hearing and be encouraged to speak directly to the tribunal on matters relating to settlement. Explaining why the guidelines were needed Woolf told the Gazette that international arbitration had ‘lost its way’ and is falling behind the commercial courts because its procedures have not been modernized.
http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/woolf-calls-arbitration-overhaul-he-launches-new-guidance
Arbitration clause cannot displace EU Commercial Agent Regulations
On 20 November 2009 in the case of Accentuate v Asigra High Court of England and Wales (EWHC) upheld the principle that renders unenforceable any contractual clause that purports to evade liabilities under mandatory EU regulations. The High Court held that it was sufficiently arguable that an arbitration clause could not be invoked to settle a dispute to which the Commercial Agents (Council Directive) Regulations 1993 applied.
http://www.walkermorris.co.uk/uploads/documents/january_2010_arbitration_clause_cannot_
displace_eu_commercial_agent_regulations_gxd%281%29.pdf
Scots Inner House identified the distinction between arbiter and expert
Until recently there was some debate as to whether there was, in fact, a real distinction in Scots law between an arbiter and an expert. The recent Inner House case of MacDonald Estates v National Car Parks helped to clarify the position. In this case, Lord Reed held that a person who sits in a judicial or quasi-judicial capacity as an arbiter decides matters on the basis of submissions and evidence put before him. Whereas an expert, subject to the provisions of his remit, is entitled to carry out his own investigations and come to his own conclusions regardless of any submissions or evidence put forward by the parties.
http://www.macroberts.com/content/content_1001.html
Scottish Arbitration Bill brings in confidentiality obligation as a default rule
On 23 November 2009 aiming to put Scotland at the forefront of arbitration, its new Arbitration Bill contains a "novel" confidentiality obligation as a default rule.
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/S3/bills/19-Arbitration/index.htm
Irish Arbitration Bill 2008 will be released in February 2010
The Arbitration Bill 2008 ("the Bill") went through Report Stage in the Dáil on 24 November 2009 and the Attorney General, Paul Gallagher SC, is now indicating that it will be enacted in February 2010. The Arbitration Act 1954, the Arbitration Act 1980 and the Arbitration (International Commercial) Act 1998 will be repealed. The new bill, which has provided a separate legal framework for domestic arbitrations and international commercial arbitrations, will be a new act applying the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration ("Model Law") to all arbitrations that take place within the State.
http://www.algoodbody.ie/en_nl/legal-news-2009.aspx?article=04bc794b-1fd4-4d9c-8eb2-28c90111b201
Park named LCIA president from 2010
On 14 September 2009 William W Park of Boston University has been chosen as the next president of the LCIA, succeeding Jan Paulsson, who is stepping down in 2010.
http://www.herbertsmith.com/NR/rdonlyres/9DFD952D-A4A3-4054-A394F1192569E95B/12637/RecentInternationalArbitrationDevelopments051009.html#5
Ulf Franke receives medal from the King of Sweden
The SCC Secretary General Mr. Ulf Franke has received a medal from King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, for important work in international arbitration. Mr. Franke has established the SCC as one of the most successful arbitral institutions worldwide. When Mr. Franke arrived at the SCC it had only a few cases per year. Last year, however, the SCC received 215 new arbitration cases, setting a new record.
http://www.sccinstitute.se/?id=23696&newsid=30913
Dong HaiZhou Wang QianLing Lin Qi
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