Everybody’s workplace and working life is undergoing profound change. Technology is allowing greater flexibility – but also extending the working day beyond the traditional 9-5 confines. Communications allows us to connect where and when we want. For working women in particular, this flexibility has laid the foundations for fresh career paths where work and home life, and particularly caring responsibilities, can be more successfully intertwined. Women make up just over 46 per cent of Australia’s workforce. For these women, and [...]

The ICC publishes its report on the use of international arbitration in financial disputes. Litigation has traditionally been the forum of choice for dispute resolution in international finance. This preference for litigation prompted the International Chamber of Commerce Commission on Arbitration and ADR (the ICC) to set up a Task Force to study financial institutions' perceptions and experience of international arbitration. The report, published on 9 November 2016, is the product of interviews with approximately 50 financial institutions and banking [...]

In recent years, leading arbitral institutions have been developing innovative ways to promote efficiency and reduce costs in arbitration proceedings, especially in relation to lower value claims. The new version of the ICC Arbitration Rules ("ICC Rules") which entered into force on 1 March 2017 provides such innovations, which are discussed below. Expedited Procedure for Disputes in the Amount of USD 2 million or less The most important change in the new ICC Rules 2017 is the introduction of the Expedited [...]

The Hon T F Bathurst AC Chief Justice of New South Wales Off With The Wig: Issues That Arise For Advocates When Switching From The Courtroom To The Negotiating Table Australian Disputes Centre 30 March 2017 Good evening everyone, it is a pleasure to be invited to address you this evening on a topic that will hopefully be relevant to the practice of many of you here today. In our current dispute resolution climate, barristers are increasingly being asked to [...]

In Dawood Rawat v The Republic of Mauritius (Rawat), an investment treaty tribunal was tasked with deciding competing applications for interim measures. In dealing with the parties' requests, the Tribunal addressed a number of current issues in international arbitration, including the tests for interim measures and security for costs, the link between third-party funding and access to justice and the principles that apply where a Most Favoured Nation (MFN) clause is invoked to establish jurisdiction. Read Full Article Here - Case comment [...]

WDR Delaware Corporation v Hydrox Holdings Pty Ltd  Background WDR, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lowes, a US-based home improvement company, entered into a joint venture agreement with Woolworths, an Australian-based retail company, to open hardware and home improvement stores in Australia and New Zealand. The joint venture agreement spawned Hydrox Holdings Pty Ltd, a registered Australian company. Woolworths owned two thirds of the shares in Hydrox and Lowes (through WDR) owned the other third. Hydrox has always operated at [...]

It sounds miraculous. Using the scent of lavender or lemon and serving hot drinks to parties can help them solve problems more creatively and act more reasonably. Some legal commentators claim the integration of mediation and neuroscience will revolutionise the process of settling cases. But is this touting of neuroscience research just the latest fad in the field, the phrenology of the 21st century? What does it add to practice of mediation? Read Full Article HERE  Jean Di Marino was [...]

Why mediators should use BATNAs carefully  The concept of Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement, or BATNA, is immensely useful in meditation. A coined termed by Roger Fisher and William Ury in the widely publicised book ‘Getting to Yes’, BATNA is the most advantageous alternative course of action that a party can take if negotiations fail to reach an agreement. Mediators often ask BATNAs to better gauge each parties’ zone of agreement. This term is widely adopted and used by [...]

The Australian Disputes Centre is exposed to a wide range of conflicts. Although largely associated with the legal process, Alternative Dispute Resolution (“ADR”) deals closely with the commercial sphere both as an external avenue for conflict resolution, and as an internal approach to negotiations. As a third year commerce student, I seek to approach ADR from a commercial perspective/background and can thus apply my learning here to my university work. Through my internship at the Centre I have gained valuable [...]

At a first glance, the mediation process appeared to a third year law student as an informal and unstructured “quick-fix” to reach a compromise in legal disputes where the rigidity of the court procedure is unable to provide a tangible (or affordable resolution). However, a day of role-playing and brainstorming around the alternative avenues of resolving conflict offered by the mediation process swiftly dissolved this simplistic interpretation. Instead, as a student half-way through her law degree at UNSW, I was [...]