Dispute Resolution International (DRI)
About Dispute Resolution International (DRI)
Dispute Resolution International is the journal of the IBA's Dispute Resolution Section. It provides in-depth discussion of current developments and topical issues in all areas of dispute resolution, including litigation, arbitration, mediation and other areas of alternative dispute resolution, as well as negligence and damages.
Dispute Resolution International is edited by Kim Rooney, an independent arbitrator and barrister at Gilt Chambers, Hong Kong. Kim is assisted by an Editorial Board comprising leading practitioners from around the world.
Dispute Resolution International is distributed to all members of the IBA Dispute Resolution Section, giving it a readership of approximately 4,000. It is published twice a year and was launched in May 2007.
If you are interested in contributing to Dispute Resolution International, please contact Kim Rooney at: kim.rooney@giltchambers.com and Zahrah Haider at zahrah.haider@int-bar.org.
If you are not a member of the IBA, you can find out more about how to join here.
If you are interested in advertising in Dispute Resolution International, please email Andrew.Webster-Dunn@int-bar.org
Members of the Dispute Resolution Section committees receive Dispute Resolution International as part of their membership. PDF-only subscriptions are also available to non-members. Please email editor@int-bar.org to order.
ISSN 2075 5333
Pricing: £76 per issue
£153 per year, two issues per year
Five per cent agency discount available on annual subscription
Although there is a broad consensus that there is a problem of under-representation in the field of international arbitration, progress in tackling this problem has been painfully slow. This is in part due to the difficulty of defining ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ (DEI) in the field of international arbitration. However, this difficulty should not inhibit or distract from tackling the problem of under-representation. Although users of international arbitration and those who serve as arbitrators shoulder some of the responsibility for promoting DEI, arbitral institutions have an unrivalled platform of opportunity and authority to advance the objectives of DEI in international arbitration. This article therefore offers several measures that arbitral institutions could adopt to advance DEI with more intentionality. These proposals are offered along a ‘Continuum of DEI Intentionality’, reflecting how easy or difficult they would likely be to implement, the boldest proposal being a set of optional rules for arbitral equity.
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The advent of the ‘crypto winter’ in early 2022, which saw cryptoasset values decline sharply and major crypto businesses fall into bankruptcy, has prompted an increase in disputes related to cryptoassets and associated businesses. A notable consequence of this trend is that national courts and arbitral tribunals will face a wave of complex and novel valuation issues over the coming months and years, including in the context of quantifying damages for highly volatile cryptoassets. This article aims to identify valuation challenges in the fast-developing area of business, law and practice that surrounds crypto disputes before making practical suggestions to help parties and their counsel successfully navigate these challenges.
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This article provides an overview of the China International Commercial Court (CICC) and its ‘one-stop’ platform for diversified international dispute resolution, as well as the new developments and benefits that this brings to users of arbitration in Hong Kong, in particular at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC). It begins by introducing the purpose of CICC’s establishment, the composition of the CICC, and the functions of the CICC. It then introduces the significance of the HKIAC’s inclusion into the CICC’s ‘one-stop’ platform, as the HKIAC is the only arbitral institution outside Mainland China to be so included. This article explains the existing mechanisms and practices through which arbitration users in an appropriate Hong Kong-seated arbitration may seek interim relief and enforcement of arbitral awards in Mainland China. Finally, this article explores the potential developments for users through the CICC’s new mechanisms and their likely impact.
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Damages issues arise in almost every international arbitration. As arbitration disputes grow larger and more complex, so, too, does the complexity of damages issues. There is no doubt that ‘getting it right’ on damages is of utmost importance to the clients we serve and to the legitimacy of the arbitration system as a whole. Yet, damages issues are too often delegated to experts without sufficient critical engagement by counsel. In this article, Mark W Friedman proposes the creation of one or more quantum academies – forums offering a multidisciplinary approach to discourse and learning about damages issues in international arbitration. By providing counsel, arbitrators and other international arbitration participants with the skills to engage rigorously on damages issues, quantum academies would demonstrate to clients and the broader legal community that it is not only safe, but desirable, to entrust the largest, most complex commercial cases to international arbitration.
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The portion of the award that causes considerable consternation for parties and tribunals is often the section dealing with damages. Tribunals do not always award all or even the bulk of the damages claimed and this increases the dissatisfaction from users of arbitration services, dissatisfaction brought about by unexpected outcomes of arbitration claims. As parties become more sophisticated and hire the relevant legal and financial expertise who have time and resources to dedicate to the case, it is inevitable that complexity is inherent in damages claims and this needs to be competently addressed to ensure arbitration remains relevant. Large awards of damages, in and of themselves, don’t undermine the system. It is the lack of analysis or improper analysis that does. This article takes a closer look at three of the drivers that could lead arbitration practitioners to inadequately handle quantification of loss and damages claims in international arbitration: differences in approach, practitioners not stepping up, and damages experts.
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This article provides an introduction to the Damages in International Arbitration (DIA) app, an interactive web application prepared by the ICCA-ASIL Task Force on Damages following five years of work. It has been prepared on the basis of the author’s contribution at the 2022 IBA Day Istanbul in March 2022 in the panel chaired by Mark Friedman and including David Dearman and Smitha Menon. The DIA guides users through the key legal, quantitative and procedural issues implicated by quantifying damages in international arbitration. The article is illustrated with some screen shots from the DIA web application and also refers to Friedman’s presentation on the suggested Quantum Academy (see pages 69–78).
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This article pleads for a (practical) balance between confidentiality and transparency for the publication of arbitral awards in international commercial arbitration. A contemporary question regarding confidentiality in international commercial arbitration is whether more transparency is desirable within the international commercial arbitration practice. This article argues that this is the case for the publication of arbitral awards, where a practical balance between confidentiality and transparency of arbitral awards should be sought, especially, considering that commercial companies prefer at this stage confidentiality over transparency within international commercial arbitration. The current opt-in and opt-out systems enacted in institutional arbitration rules for the publication of arbitral awards as a compromise between those different perspectives have proven to be insufficient. This article recommends allowing publication of awards with complete anonymisation, except if an arbitral tribunal grants a request by a party to not publish an anonymised award by an arbitral decision. Parties will, however, always have the opportunity to settle on a different approach in their arbitration agreement, since such agreements must be honoured by the arbitral tribunals and contracting states to the New York Convention (Article II(1) and Article V(1)(d) of the New York Convention). Along these lines, a practical balance between confidentiality and transparency in respect to the publication of arbitral awards could be provided for by arbitral institutions without delegitimising the practice from the viewpoint of the commercial sector, which prefers confidentiality over transparency.
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Open access articles
The Global Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Commercial Dispute Resolution in the First Year
While the pandemic disruption has extended for far longer than initially expected, courts (after the first wave), arbitral institutions and stakeholders in commercial dispute resolution have largely continued operations, increasingly supported by innovative digital technology, flexible scheduling and flexible cost structures, among other tools.
Released on Jun 02, 2021
The Global Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Commercial Dispute Resolution in the First Seven Months
In 2020, most of the world’s countries have had to respond to the severe disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which emerged in late December 2019 (the ‘pandemic’). The pandemic poses enormous health and socio-economic challenges. As of September 2020, it is not known when the pandemic will end; some countries are already experiencing further waves of infection. Globally, judiciaries and arbitral institutions have been under great pressure to continue operating during the pandemic [...]
How to order
Members of the Dispute Resolution Section committees receive Dispute Resolution International as part of their membership. PDF-only subscriptions are also available to non-members. Please email editor@int-bar.org to order.
ISSN 2075 5333
Pricing: £76 per issue
£153 per year, two issues per year
Five per cent agency discount available on annual subscriptions
Guidelines for authors
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Disclaimer: The views expressed in journals, newsletters and papers are those of the contributors, and not necessarily those of the International Bar Association.