By Rouein Momen* The International Court of Arbitration, a branch of the International Chamber of Commerce (‘ICC’), has updated its ‘Note to Parties and Arbitral Tribunals on the Conduct of Arbitration’. This revision came into force on 1 January 2019. The amendments are aimed at improving the transparency and efficiency of the conduct of arbitration and to encourage the ICC rules of arbitration to compete with the ICSID (International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes) rules. For arbitrations registered on [...]

By Christian Santos* The Telecommunications (Arbitration) Regulations 2018 (Cth) (‘the TAR’) has made changes to the arbitration of disputes by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The significant changes follow: 1. ACCC Conduct of Arbitrations Regulation 14 of the TAR gives greater flexibility to the ACCC in how it may conduct the arbitration of a dispute. The ACCC may either conduct an arbitration ‘on the papers’, or hold an arbitration hearing, in-part on the papers and in-part by arbitration [...]

by Donna Ross*   Good drafting makes for good contracts and good business relationships. Yet these principles are often forgotten when it comes to drafting dispute resolution clauses. They are often an afterthought and an inopportune one at that, as once the rest of the contract has been agreed, the parties prefer celebration to discussing what might go wrong. For this reason, the champagne clause, sometimes called an eleventh hour or midnight clause,  is more often than not unclear, incomplete or [...]

While the property markets and other parts of the economy may be slowing, a little-noticed sector has been quietly roaring­. Indigenous-owned business is booming and the ADC has launched a new national ADR body, the First Nations’ Mediation Panel, to support and take advantage of what looks to be a game changer in indigenous enterprise. A 2018 report released by the indigenous consulting arm of Price Waterhouse Coopers found indigenous-owned business contributed up to $6.6 billion to the Australian economy [...]

Imagine a hearing room full of high-definition monitors replacing the millions of paper folders involved in your arbitration. From small, local to large-scale, international arbitrations, innovative electronic arbitration (eArbitration) technology allows you to go paperless. By transforming how your legal team works you can make arbitral processes easier, quicker, and more cost-effective. International collaboration The major benefits of eArbitrations lie in their collaborative potential; they enable collaboration between legal teams, experts, and clients in highly scalable and customisable cloud-based workspaces. [...]

Greg Rooney by Greg Rooney*   Mediation has an identity issue - but it’s not its fault. Mediators - and the profession they practise called mediation - merely sit as innocent bystanders observing how the modern collaborative interconnected economy has challenged the identity and, in some cases, the very existence of the established professions and commercial and social institutions. We now live in a time where a world of connectivity and fluidity has replaced the 20th- century Newtonian [...]

Rouein Momen Rouein Momen The International Court of Arbitration, a branch of the International Chamber of Commerce (‘ICC’), has renewed its ‘Note to Parties and Arbitral Tribunals on the Conduct of Arbitration’, of which the latest updates have come into force on 1 January 2019. The aim of these amendments was to improve the transparency and efficiency of the conduct of arbitration, and further, to push the ICC rules of arbitration to compete with the ICSID rules. For [...]

By Lena Lindinger*   With the Australian Law Reform Commission expected to publish a discussion paper on third party funding in litigation, we want to take a look at where third party funding in international arbitration stands today in Australia and the rest of the world. Third Party Funding in International Arbitration Third Party Funding (TPF) arises when investors finance a legal claim in exchange for influence over case management and a part in the damages recoverable from the case.1 [...]

By Tony Song* Tony Song In every minute, over 12,986,111 texts messages are sent around the world.1 Each day, there is an output of over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data.2 By 2020, for every person on earth, 1.7 MB of data will be created per second. Data is today’s most valuable currency – it is borderless, vast and multi-purposive. With the ever-increasing ubiquity of smartphones, laptops and cloud computing, data is also more portable than ever. The natural by-product [...]

Ian Davidson SC and Deborah Lockhart Abstract In Australia, Alternative Dispute Resolution (commonly known as ADR) has grown significantly; not merely in the footsteps of its international popularity, but as a frontrunner in a global push for timely and cost effective dispute resolution. No ADR process has done this more so than mediation. It is estimated that 80-90% of civil cases are disposed of pre-trial in Australia.1 When speaking at the Australian Disputes Centre in 2017, NSW Chief Justice Tom [...]