INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION 1/3LY
20 YE ARS OR SO AGO, SOME BEL IE VED THAT ARBI TRAT ION HAD BECOME THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN, BUT THAT WA S A MI SGUIDED V IEW AT THE T IME , AND I S MORE SO TODAY.
CHALLENGES FOR THE ARBI TRAL COMMUNI T Y
We should also ensure that standards aremaintained in themany new regional arbitration centres that emerge with growing regularity. Established institutions like the LCIA have an important role to play in setting an example and in setting standards. One thing that does not concernme is where the next generation of excellent international arbitrators will come from. We see in young arbitrator groups, like the LCIA’s YIAG, a wealth of talent and remarkable ability fromevery jurisdiction, including those where today it’s harder to find good arbitrators, whichwill provide all the tribunals that parties are likely to require for the next generation. BEN Before we wrap up, if youwere looking at the LCIA in 10 years’ time, what would you like to see? ADRI AN I should, naturally, like to see that the LCIA has continued to growat the same rate that it has grown at over the past decade or so. I should also like to see each of our overseas offices standing on its own feet, andwith case-loads that vindicate the decisions to establish them. And, lastly, I would like to see that arbitration, and particularly LCIA arbitration, is still being held in high regard as an effectivemeans of resolving the broadest range of commercial and treaty disputes. THE LCI A : A DEC ADE ON. . .
BEN What do you perceive to be the biggest challenges, or problems, that you’re witnessing in arbitration at themoment? ADRI AN We have to guard against complacency and ensure that our rules and the services we provide are relevant and attractive to our users. 20 years or so ago, some believed that arbitration had become the only game in town, but that was amisguided viewat the time, and ismore so today. There are ever more, and ever more viable, alternatives to arbitration available to the business and legal communities. Not only in other forms of ADR, such as adjudication, dispute review boards, expert determination, mediation and so on, but also in the state courts of many jurisdictions, which have striven to providemore expeditious and cost-effective services. This is why it’s so important for the LCIA to remain up to date, and relevant, by listening to its users, whether they be the parties, transactional lawyers, arbitrators, academics, or others. It’s also important to recognise and nurture the synergy between the courts of jurisdiction and arbitration; a relationship that should be supportive and harmonious. We need also to strike a balance between proper self- regulation through the adoption of voluntary guidelines (on such issues as conflicts of interest and the conduct of party representatives) and an excess of guidelines. Rules and regulations that start life as soft lawbut aspire to become hard lawand through the sheer plethora of such regulations, produce clashes and confusion.
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