ICC International Centre for ADR reports record number of requests

At the same time, the Centre handled a growing number of cases in its core areas of ADR, including mediation, as well as expertise and dispute boards.

Growing demand for core services

The number of new cases filed under the ICC ADR Rules rose to 32 in 2013. Those cases covered a broad range of industries and comprised parties from 33 countries. Consensual dispute resolution techniques are becoming increasingly widespread, in both the public and private sectors. Cases registered in 2013 included two state entities – one from the Middle East and the other from Sub-Saharan Africa. Mediation was the most widely used technique in these cases, one reason why the ADR Rules have since been superseded by ICC’s Mediation Rules.

Requests made under the ICC Expertise Rules also grew from 19 in 2012 to 27 in 2013, involving parties from 25 countries. These included 16 requests for proposals of an expert, seven for the appointment of an expert, and four for the administration of expertise proceedings. Of the 16 proposals, 11 were requested by ICC arbitral tribunals, for which the Centre provides the service free of charge. In addition, the Centre received six new cases under ICC’s DOCDEX Rules, an expertise service dedicated to disputes over documentary credits and other financial instruments. These cases involved parties of 11 nationalities.

2013 also saw a rise in the use of the Centre’s resources for constituting dispute boards. The Centre was commissioned to appoint members to five different dispute boards set up by parties from seven countries across all continents or to decide on challenges raised against dispute board members. The cultural diversity of the parties demonstrates the international appeal of ICC’s services and the increasing popularity of dispute boards worldwide.

Internet domain name disputes

A total of 137 domain name disputes were referred to ICC in 2013. These disputes arose out of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ (ICANN) decision to allow the creation of new gTLD names in order to complement approximately 20 existing extensions such as “.org” and “.com”. Applications for new gTLDs were open to objections on four grounds. The ICC International Centre for Expertise, which is part of the International Centre for ADR, was named the dispute resolution provider for two categories of objections: limited public interest objections and community objections. There were 21 countries represented in the 137 cases administered by ICC. The disputes were resolved by 61 experts of 22 nationalities, whose decisions can be found here.

More detailed statistics can be found in the 2013 Statistical Report, which will be published in vol. 25 no.1 of the ICC International Court of Arbitration Bulletin. The report will also be available online in the ICC Dispute Resolution Library, and is expected for publication in August 2014.