The industry's leading international arbitration institutions (the International Centre for Dispute Resolution of the AAA, the International Court of Arbitration of the ICC, and the World Bank International Centre for Settlement for Investment Dispute) met in New York on November 18th to share the recent developments of international arbitration with the presence of 150 arbitrators and professionals mostly from Europe and the Americas.

The colloquium began with a presentation of the activity of the three institutions by their respective presidents, John Beechey, of the ICC International Court of Arbitration in Paris, Meg Kinnear, Secretary General of ICSID, in Washington DC, and William K. Slate II, CEO of the AAA and the ICDR, New York.

Last year, the ICC International Court of Arbitration filed 793 cases, involving 2,145 parties from 140 countries, according to John Beechey from Britain.

The Canadian - born Meg Kinnear noted that the ICSID filled 32 cases last year, 68% relating to bilateral treaties, with a significant increase of cases among developing countries. 147 countries are members of this institution; some Caribbean countries like the Dominican Republic did not ratify its accession, others are not members, such as Cuba. Venezuela accounts for almost 20% of the activity of ICSID. A significant effort was made to reduce delays in cases and was achieved from an average of 42 months to 25 months. Otherwise, the institution decided to separate arbitration and conciliation with dedicated professionals.

On the other hand, William Slate reported that 888 cases were filed by the AAA-ICDR in 2010 (versus 586 in 2006) and the figure of 1,000 will probably be reached this year, with a large proportion of arbitration versus conciliation. Like the ICSID, the average time “filling to award” was reduced from 395 days to 304.

The covered topics of the one-day session, -with leading arbitration specialists-, focused on “Fees and expenses Control of arbitration and mediation” with a very concrete proposal from arbitrator Albert Jan van den Berg from Hanotiau & van den Berg Law firm, Brussels, on “Arbitrator immunity and liability” with a presentation by James H. Carter from Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, New York.

The conflict of interest of arbitrators and law firms to which they belong, the stringent obligations of disclosure and declaration of independence of the arbitrators and the penalties for violations in this area, the control of arbitration cost by the parties and the Institutions, therefore the need to promote mediation, younger arbitrators, to reduce time (and thus to control the agenda of the appointed arbitrators), were in the main menu of the joint colloquium as indispensable tools to preserve the image and credibility international arbitration.

For more information please contact: Jean Reale, jean.reale@acplegal.net