ADR is currently an area of substantial growing importance in many legal jurisdictions globally. The use of arbitration is well established, but there are several issues to be addressed in ensuring that the process is as efficient and effective as it can be. Therefore, increasingly there has been a desire to use mediation as a dispute settlement mechanism. The use of mediation is being driven by a variety of factors, including the desire for quicker, more private and more cost-effective ways of resolving civil disputes. While this is in many ways to be welcomed, it brings with it significant questions, for example, potential oversight of practice, transparency and the development of precedent. For instance, both government policy and civil court rules are promoting the use of ADR in England and Wales, and it offers potential benefits to those involved in a civil dispute. It is important that developments in the use of ADR be soundly based, and that progress continues in identifying appropriate ways to address disputes in cost and time efficient ways. Thus, the aim of our research platform is the advancement of research, scholarship and education in the fields of negotiation, mediation and arbitration internationally. In doing this, we seek to develop relationships with legal professionals and academics with interests in this area.
Until twenty years ago very few legal systems globally possessed the necessary legislation to cater to international arbitration. Therefore, it was only practiced in certain quarters. Most legal systems, both civil and common law, only provided for adversarial-type litigation for the resolution of commercial disputes.
Twenty-five years ago, no one was talking about “diversity” in international arbitration. Generally, diversity was an alien concept 25 years ago, let alone in Arbitration. More so, the arbitration community was a tightly-knit, Anglo-European (plus the odd American) gentlemen’s club, where everyone knew everyone else, either personally or by reputation, where arbitrators and counsel regularly lunched or golfed together, and where everyone was usually familiar with the style and proclivities of the other members.
Historically, the definition of arbitration as “international” has meant that it involves the resolution of a dispute between parties from two or more states or the laws of a third State governs the arbitration as set out, for instance, in Article 1 of the UNCITRAL Model Law and Article V of the New York Convention 1958. This definition does not concern itself with whether the necessary infrastructure is in place to cater to this dispute settlement mechanism in St.
