Following the success of the previous edition (2010), the Department of Public and Private International Law at the University Complutense of Madrid and the Arauz Law Firm (Panama) organised the second edition of the international training course for arbitrators, sponsored by the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in the Caribbean (OHADAC), the National Association of Stevedoring and Shipping Agents (Spain), the International Centre for Arbitration, Mediation and Negotiation (CIAMEN, Europe), the Civil & Commercial Court of Arbitration (CIMA, Spain), the Iprolex Law Firm (Spain), the Institute of Stock Market (Madrid, Spain), the University of Science and Technology (ULACIT, Panama), the Inter-American University(Panama) and the University of Panama.

The course was preceded by a lecture by the famed international arbitrator Dr. Bernardo Cremades. The opening of the course was held at the Ricardo J. Alfar Auditorium, Faculty of Law, at the University of Panama under the chairmanship of HE. and Grand Chancellor of the University of Panama Dr. Gustavo Garcia de Paredes, the Dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Science, Dr. Gilberto Boutin, Prof. Dr. José Carlos Fernández Rozas, Professor of Private International Law at the University Complutense of Madrid and Academic Director of the Course, and Dr. Juan Carlos Arauz, Director & Partner of the Arauz Law firm. The event was attended by 300 people included representatives of the Bar Association of Panama, members of the judiciary administration, the executive branch of the Panama Canal Authority and other stakeholders in the development of commercial and investment arbitration, with special focus in the maritime field.

The prestigious teachers gave over 30 hours of courses at the premises of the inter-American University with a very practical program that had to round off the development of a mock arbitration that brought huge buzz of interest among 65 students who passed the qualifying rounds and, subsequently, received the appropriate training certificate.

The group was composed of professors José Miguel Serrano Ruiz Calderón, Academic Director of the Institute of Stock Market Studies in Madrid, Carmen Camacho and Victor Fuentes Otero García Castrillón, from the Madrid Complutense , who, regardless of their lectures, were responsible for the work of tutoring students. Next to them the course had a major cast of renowned experts in arbitration practice as Ramon Mullerat Balmaña, KPMG Law Firm (Barcelona), Jorge Federico Lee, partner at German, Cordero, Galindo & Lee (Panama), Gonzalo Stampa Casas, Stampa Law Firm (Madrid), Alberto Lopez Tom, De Castro & Robles (Panama) and former President of the Panamanian Maritime Law Association, Gilberto Boutin, founding partner at Boutin Law Firm (Panama), Jose Carlos Fernandez Rozas, Professor of Private International Law at the University Complutense of Madrid and international arbitrator, Leonel Castro Pereznieto Senior Professor at UNAM and Consultant at Jauregui, Navarrete y Nader, SC Law Firm(Mexico), Manuel Garay Orbe, Director of the Civil & Commercial Court of Arbitration (CIMA, Madrid), Andrés Rigo Sureda, former Legal Vice President Deputy of the World Bank, international lawyer and arbitrator and Rodolfo Dávalos Fernández, Senior Professor of Commercial and private international Law at the University of Havana and President of the Cuban Court of Arbitration.

The judicial perspective was worthily represented by Adan Arnulfo Arjona Lopez, Former President of the Supreme Court (Panama), and the Administration was in charge of Leidylin Contreras, Legal Adviser of the Dominican Republic Executive.

After a lecture, the closing ceremony and certificate presentation was chaired by Prof. Dr. Pedro A. Miguel Asensio, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid.

Dr. Darío SANDOVAL
Araúz Law Firm, Panamá, in "Revista de Arbitraje Comercial y de Inversiones", 2011, Madrid