International Arbitration Conference / Large infrastructure projects / Conflict of Interest / Panama Auguste, 24 2012

• 20/06/2012
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• 1 commentaire

We are pleased to inform you of the upcoming conference (program) on arbitration in large infrastructure projects organized by the ICC International Court of Arbitration and the IBA on August 24th in Panama. This event will be followed by a seminar organized by the IBA on the Guidelines on conflicts of interest.

The latter seminar dedicated to conflicts of interests will hopefully emphasize the obligations of arbitral institutions to uphold strictly the values and principles of international arbitration, especially those concerning the obligations of disclosure, independence and impartiality of arbitrators.

It could provide the occasion to firmly and definitively reassert the basic principle that no Attorney can sit as arbitrator, let alone as sole arbitrator, in a case while his law firm keeps counseling and entertaining business relations with one of the parties to the arbitration, without prior disclosure and acceptance by the other parties to the arbitration.

It could also provide guidance as to what an arbitral institution must do when confronted to such a case. In a current high profile case, an American arbitral institution has been confronted with an egregious conflict of interest involving a huge Canadian lawfirm. The arbitrator has resigned, but the arbitral institution had refused before his resignation to dismiss him and to challenge the conflicted partial award the Arbitrator had rendered while his law firm was completing a 600 millions USD deal with one of the parties, the other party being unaware of such a huge transaction. Hopefully, the upcoming seminar will address this problem and liability issues concerning the arbitral institution in such a case. Another useful point to address would be what role could and should play the signatory states of the international arbitration conventions to force the arbitral institution to abide by the principles laid down by these treaties and uphold the essential values of international arbitration?

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For more information, please contact: fcherifi@castaldimourre.com