With the privilege of the Hon Justice Francois Kunc attending the Grand Final of the ADC Schools Debating Competition 2017, our participating Year 10 students capped off another amazing six-week program. The competition is run annually as part of ADC’s Corporate Social Responsibility. In 2017 our participants had a lot of fun developing their team-work (collaborating in teams with students from other schools), putting their heads together to brainstorm an array of persuasive arguments on various challenging topics, executing their [...]

Thank you for inviting me to speak at this dinner and to participate in the presentation of the Dispute Resolution Awards. Alternative dispute resolution has come a long way in the last 30 years.  The term is now something of an anachronism.  What used to be ‘alternative’ is mainstream. As a Judge of the Federal Court in 1990 I was interested in the use of court-annexed mediation as a way of encouraging more and earlier settlements or at least narrowing [...]

  The dynamic and quickly evolving nature of dispute resolution in Australia was explored in detail at the ADRA State of Dispute Resolution Conference and Workshop at Clayton Utz, Sydney on 22 August 2017. The day, introduced by Mary Walker on behalf of ADRA, saw keynote addresses from two senior members of the judiciary – the Honourable Patricia Bergin and the Honourable Thomas Bathurst AC. The Keynote speakers, together with specialist ADR presenters explored topical issues affecting the ADR industry. [...]

Introduction Real-time court reporting involves the attendance of onsite stenographers who are writing in stenographic code at speeds of up to 280 words per minute, and at 98% accuracy. There is currently no quicker way to get an accurate transcript of proceedings in a hearing. What is real-time? Real-time transcription services provide users with a live feed of legal proceedings as they happen. A real-time team – consisting of a highly skilled real-time court reporter and an editor – attend [...]

Recent changes to Australian gas export and taxation policy serve as reminders that the protections afforded to investors under investment treaties are not only relevant to investors in emerging markets. Investment treaties are also relevant to investors in modern and developed jurisdictions with widely recognised adherence to the rule of law. Three developing investor-state arbitrations in Australia, each also concerning alleged expropriation and breaches of other common investment treaty protections, demonstrate the relevance of investment treaty protections in jurisdictions of [...]

In the recent decision in AGL Energy Limited v Jemena Gas Networks (NSW) Ltd, Hammershchlag J of the Supreme Court of New South Wales refused to refer an action commenced in the Court to arbitration pursuant to s 8(1) of the Commercial Arbitration Act 2010 (NSW) (the Act). The case arose in the context of two "Reference Service Agreements" between AGL Energy Limited (AGL) and Jemena Gas Networks (NSW) Ltd (Jemena) (the Agreements).  The consecutive – and near identical – [...]