All the panelists are professionals with particular experience of arbitrating disputes in sport. They include arbitrators listed with the Court of Arbitration for Sport and former members of tribunals constituted for individual sporting events, including the Olympic Games. 

To download the programme and register, please click here.

For further information, please contact Ms. Marina Solecki by email or phone +33 1 49 53 30 42.

On 11-12 February 2010, the ICC International Court of Arbitration will co-organize two events in Baltic States on “Global Financial Crisis and International Arbitration in the Current Economic Climate”.

Experts from the ICC International Court of Arbitration, White and Case LLP and Lawin will examine the claims emerging from the financial crises, the resulting procedural and enforcement issues, and the outlook for 2010.

John Beechey, Chairman of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, will be the keynote speaker at the Vienna Arbitration Days on 12-13 February 2010.

The topics include:

• Arbitration in Crisis/ Crisis in Arbitration?
• Insolvency and Arbitration
• State Entities in Commercial Arbitration
• Guerilla Tactics in Arbitration

On 17 August 2009, the International Court of Arbitration issued a new Statement of Acceptance, Availability and Independence for arbitrators being nominated by parties or proposed by ICC national committees to serve on arbitral tribunals under the ICC Rules of Arbitration.

The principal change introduced in this document was the inclusion of a separate section on availability rather than having the availability requirement linked to the acceptance to serve in the case. In this new section on availability arbitrators are invited to confirm their ability to devote the necessary time to the arbitration.

This addition is intended to encourage arbitrators to reflect carefully on their availability before being appointed or confirmed by the ICC Court and to encourage greater transparency towards the parties involved in the arbitration regarding their availability.

Experience has shown that an unrealistic assessment by an arbitrator of the time he or she can give to a case may cause delays, require the Court to grant repeated extensions of the time limits set pursuant to the ICC Rules of Arbitration, and frustrate the parties’ need for prompt and well-considered decisions. Such delays are both inconvenient and costly. ICC, as the world’s leading international arbitral institution, considered it had a responsibility to address this problem.

To allow an assessment of an arbitrator’s workload, the new Statement of Acceptance, Availability and Independence requests certain limited information on the arbitrator’s professional commitments. However, arbitrators are encouraged to provide more information to the extent that clarification may be necessary and helpful for the Court and the parties to make informed decisions. For example, an arbitrator may indicate the amount of time that he or she has available in the course of the coming months or information regarding the status of any pending cases. However, arbitrators should not disclose information that is confidential.

In order to respond to certain concerns raised after the initial publication of the form, a revised version was issued with effect from January 2010. Amendments to the form make explicit that any information provided by an arbitrator must be treated confidentially and will be stored in compliance with the provisions of French data protection law. It will be used only for the purpose of the case for which the prospective arbitrator is nominated. 

The Court attaches great importance to observance by ICC tribunals of the time limits in the ICC Rules of Arbitration. Arbitrators appointed or confirmed under the Rules must be capable of working within these limits throughout the entire duration of the case. The vast majority of arbitrators do not need to be reminded of the need to be realistic when assessing the time they can give to a case. Regrettably, however, some do and the Court anticipates that the fact that the point has been highlighted in the new ICC Statement of Acceptance, Availability and Independence will reduce the risk of unreasonable delays in the conduct of ICC arbitrations.

Whilst the new Statement of Acceptance, Availability and Independence may also give rise to objections to the confirmation or appointment of arbitrators or to challenges based on the disclosures provided, those that are frivolous or made for tactical reasons will not be accepted by the Court. Genuine concerns about availability may cause the Court to enquire further of an arbitrator or not to confirm or appoint that person. Equally, however the Court will endeavor to respect the parties’ choices and those of any co-arbitrators on whom the power to nominate a chairman may have been conferred.