Greg Rooney by Greg Rooney*   Mediation has an identity issue - but it’s not its fault. Mediators - and the profession they practise called mediation - merely sit as innocent bystanders observing how the modern collaborative interconnected economy has challenged the identity and, in some cases, the very existence of the established professions and commercial and social institutions. We now live in a time where a world of connectivity and fluidity has replaced the 20th- century [...]

By Lena Lindinger*   With the Australian Law Reform Commission expected to publish a discussion paper on third party funding in litigation, we want to take a look at where third party funding in international arbitration stands today in Australia and the rest of the world. Third Party Funding in International Arbitration Third Party Funding (TPF) arises when investors finance a legal claim in exchange for influence over case management and a part in the damages recoverable from the case.1 [...]

By Tony Song* Tony Song In every minute, over 12,986,111 texts messages are sent around the world.1 Each day, there is an output of over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data.2 By 2020, for every person on earth, 1.7 MB of data will be created per second. Data is today’s most valuable currency – it is borderless, vast and multi-purposive. With the ever-increasing ubiquity of smartphones, laptops and cloud computing, data is also more portable than ever. The natural [...]

Ian Davidson SC and Deborah Lockhart Abstract In Australia, Alternative Dispute Resolution (commonly known as ADR) has grown significantly; not merely in the footsteps of its international popularity, but as a frontrunner in a global push for timely and cost effective dispute resolution. No ADR process has done this more so than mediation. It is estimated that 80-90% of civil cases are disposed of pre-trial in Australia.1 When speaking at the Australian Disputes Centre in 2017, NSW Chief Justice Tom [...]

By Tony Song* His Excellency, High Commissioner of Kenya, Isaiya Kabira with Deborah Lockhart at the 55th Anniversary of Jamhuri Day in Canberra. Jamhuri Day marks the independence and birth of Kenya as an independent nation-state. On the 12 December 1963, Kenya achieved sovereignty with its own government led by Jomo Kenyatta as Prime Minister. A year later, on this day, Kenya officially declared itself a republic. The modern history of Kenya is intertwined with British colonialism. [...]

This year’s Intercollegiate Negotiation and Arbitration Competition (INC) in Tokyo has been won by Team Australia – 21 students from 9 Australian universities.  Team Australia won the competition outright, as well as the Squire Patton Boggs Award for the highest scoring team in English-language Negotiation. In an historic first, Team Australia also won the Herbert Smith Freehills Award the highest scoring team in Arbitration, in Japanese.  That award was presented by Team Australia alumna Eriko Kadota, Dispute Desolution Associate in [...]

Dual proceedings will not stick - Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC v Bega Cheese Limited [2018] FCA 549 The case concerns the restraining of arbitral proceedings in the US District Court of the Southern District of New York in the matter between Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC (‘Kraft’) and Bega Cheese Limited (‘Bega’). In 2017, Bega acquired certain rights to use the Kraft brand including the right to sell peanut butter in Australia using its jar [...]

The Hon. Tim Pallas MP; Emma King CEO of Victorian Council of Social Service; Treasure Jennings, Public Transport Ombudsman; and Denis Nelthorpe, CEO of WEstjustice. In August 2018, the Public Transport Ombudsman Victoria was awarded the ‘ADR Innovation of the Year Award’ by the Australian Disputes Centre for their unique and pre-emptive approach to assisting homeless young people with public transport disputes. In partnership with the community legal service ‘WEstjustice’ the Public Transport Ombudsman recognised a recurring [...]

by Michael Moryosef* AUSTRALIA Limited scope to appeal security of payment decisions: Probuild Constructions v Shade Systems[1] This recent Australian High Court decision held that an adjudication determination made under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 NSW (SOP Act) may not be overturned on the basis that the determination contained a non-jurisdictional error. The decision found that the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of NSW did not have jurisdiction to overturn an arbitrated decision on the [...]

ADR v Adjudication: Jurisprudential and Socio-Economic Considerations The Hon. Chief Justice Chris Kourakis’ SA Supreme Court Address Crypto-currency and medieval market fair courts may have more in common than first meets the eye. Kourakis CJ takes us back to the future in postulating how disputes involving new technologies may best be resolved. The Australian Disputes Centre received a warm welcome at the Supreme Court of South Australia in hosting the Court’s inaugural ADR Address on 18 October 2018. Chief Justice [...]