About the conference

The conference is organized jointly by UNCITRAL and the Ljubljana Arbitration Centre (LAC) and will take place at the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday, 9 April 2018.

This time we will focus on:

• New instruments for the enforcement of settlement agreements reached through international mediation;
• Expedited proceedings;
  
• Dispute avoidance and dispute resolution in construction industry;
• Damages in international arbitration.

We are looking forward to welcoming you to Ljubljana.

Pierre Tercier

"Facilitating the resolution of disputes

Commercial arbitration is becoming the custom avenue for resolving disputes. It is essential that it operates in a satisfactory manner, so that it does not become an obstacle to the access to justice. It is necessary to identify the weaknesses that it presents, especially the increasing complexities, in order to assist in its proper operation."

Franz T. Schwarz

"Arbitration is subject to competing tensions: between efficiency and quality; between cost and complexity; between flexibility and predictability. This panel will explore the advantages and pitfalls of expedited proceedings; where they make sense; and how to best manage them as counsel and as arbitrator."

Venus Valentina Wong

"Arbitration is typically the last, but often unavoidable stage of escalation in a construction dispute if other pre-arbitral mechanisms have not resolved the dispute. Parties should thus pay attention to both substantive and procedural issues from the very beginning of the construction project."

Jure Levovnik

"From arbitration practitioner’s perspective, explaining and proving to the arbitral tribunal the amount of damage incurred by its party, or to refute the other party’s argumentation and evidence on damage, can be one of the most challenging tasks in international arbitration damage cases. Presenting issues of quantum as clearly and understandably as possible is not only a matter of constructing a solid bridge between applicable legal provisions on damages on the one hand and often complex economic issues and calculations on the other, but above all a matter of increasing the likelihood that the tribunal will fully understand and, eventually, adopt the argumentation presented by the party."

Maja Menard

"Expedited proceedings are not yet used frequently enough in practice, in my view in large part due to a misapprehension of their expedited nature. Parties too often negatively interpret expedited as (too) simplified and doubt the appropriateness of such proceedings even for disputes that would, in fact, be most efficiently resolved by recourse to expedited proceedings."

Michael Nueber

“Expedited proceedings are a quite recent phenomenon in international arbitration with the main goal to save the parties’ costs and time. However, whereas expedited proceedings make sense in some cases, I witnessed parties complaining about the insufficient fact-finding as well as a rather surprising final award by the arbitral tribunal or the sole arbitrator.”

David Premelč

"Large construction projects are very complex by definition. Despite the great legal work, it is impossible to resolve every detail and foresee every contingency at the outset. Such projects are rarely completed without giving rise to disputes. Arbitration allows the parties to appoint the arbitrators with the necessary construction expertise and experience, which is required for efficient dispute resolution."

Pierre M. Genton

"Prevention of dispute is not only a complement to arbitration, but brings great benefits for users in settling timely their differences in the course of a project. The adequate use of preventing approaches in the construction industry such as Dispute Boards are showing success rates of over 90%!"

Jan K. Schäfer

“Expedited proceedings sound compelling for smaller matters but in practice can pose serious challenges for all involved - users, counsels and arbitrators. While time is money, the overriding purpose of arbitration is still to deliver justice, not just with respect to the end result but critically in the way a proceeding is conducted. Careful consideration should therefore be given during the negotiation of an arbitration agreement about expedited proceedings, opting out of them might be the better choice, depending on the specific circumstances of the transaction - technical complexity, economic importance of contract, geographies involved etc.”

Minu A. Gvardjančič

“In many arbitration procedures damages are not dealt with early enough, leaving damages arguments and evidences until near the end of the case. Even more, presentation of damages evidence is in practice too frequently left to financial and accounting experts, whose presentations are often very complex, causing problems to counsels and to arbitrators to ascertain their actual volume.”

Hans Liebel

“Dispute Avoidance and Dispute settlement are not a matter of Contractual obedience or Contract Templates, but are a matter of geographical and Institutional culture of the involved parties. Unless these two are compatible, dispute avoidance will be difficult if not impossible.”

Leon Kopecky 

“Expedited proceedings are a powerful tool. More and more institutions promote theirs. But is faster really better?”

Judith Kneiper

"The Singapore Convention on Mediation is a ground breaking framework for international mediation and should become for mediation what the New York Convention is for arbitration." 

Daniela Karollus-Bruner

"Arbitrators and counsels are usually lawyers – iudex non calculat is an old saying which explains why arbitrators and counsels often struggle with the calculation, presentation, explanation and awarding of damages. These questions quite often do not get the attention they deserve and/or are “outsourced” to the clients/parties and experts. A result are excessive or poorly reasoned claims or claims lacking the required legal basis. These weaknesses are more often than not then also reflected in the arbitral award. "

Manuel Conthe

The assessment of damages to be paid by respondent is normally a difficult topic, frequently at the heart of contractual or investment disputes. And while in determining liability legal doctrines and the opinion of technical experts are critical, in determining quantum legal and economic concepts combine and take the upper hand. They become key when addressing issues like: What standard of evidence or predictability of damages to require? What type of damages (reliance, expectational…) to award? Did liability caps apply? In investment arbitration cases, was the expropriation or State’s behaviour wrongful? As of what date to determine quantum? How to value the expropriated or destroyed asset (liquidation, sunk costs, market value, discounted cash flows…)? If an income approach is to be applied, how to determine the discount rate? If the valuation of the damage is a remote one, which pre-award interest rate to apply?”

Sylvia Tonova

“In investment arbitration, damages is a word that more often than not gives rise to fear, confusion and frustration in equal measure for arbitrators and counsel. However, as the size of the quantum claims and associated awards in this field increase, so does the need for all parties involved to understand and engage in all issues pertaining to damages. One thing is clear -- damages in international arbitration is an art, not a science. It involves far more than simply numbers, but instead represents a synthesis between law, business, accounting and finance. A successful quantum claim is reliant on and engages with not only the theoretical underpinnings of the quantum claim, but also the causation of any loss and ultimately the underlying figures themselves.”

SPONSORED BY:

MEDIA SPONSORS

 

 

More about the previous conferences 

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY We are looking forward to welcoming renowned speakers as well as connecting participants from around the world, in particular arbitrators, counsel representing parties in arbitrations, in-house counsel, state officials and globally operating businesses. Sponsoring the conference is thus a good opportunity to promote your firm to potential clients in both investment and commercial disputes, especially in the region of Central and South-eastern Europe.Please click here for details on sponsorship. For more details please contact the LAC Secretariat, arbitraza.lj@gzs.si.