EUROPEAN
ARBITRATION
ISSN 1286-4528
EA is an electronic
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diary of arbitral events.
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EA20
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* ARBITRATION
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August 29th, 1997.
CONTENTS
Publisher Michael Chapman.
mchapman@zen.dedal.fr.net
1. Talking points.
2. Diary of Arbitral Events.
3. Directory
4. News items.
5. Feature Article.
6. Letters.
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1. TALKING POINTS:
Fairy Stories and Arbitration.
------------------------------
Repeating the August mood of last year (EA08) this issue's
feature is an update on arbitral fairy stories.
Besides the annual bibliography of the genre, we again include
an example. This being 'The Gold Diggers', which was originally published
in February 1997. It parodies, I feel, a historical phenomenon of the recession
of the 1980's. The economies of professional practices were capital rich,
but very much income poor. 'Investing' to change direction seemed logical
to many. There were -inevitably- good investments and bad investments.
Now the recession is (said to be) over, professional practices
are left depleted of capital but with rising (if lowered) incomes. The
quest now is perhaps for information rather than certification; for knowledge
rather than qualifications. The tools to do today's job, rather than ...
If this is the case we say it with some humility, because this journal
-if unique in its own medium- is but a minor part of the ever widening
field of arbitral publications.
And before anyone takes offence, what is parodied is I am
sure an historical period. The future, as the author perhaps hints, lies
in other directions.
bsp;
EA
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2. DIARY OF EVENTS:
A fuller Diary occurred in EA18 and will next appear in EA21.
The fuller listings also explain the concept (or 'mission') of the Diary.
Meeting organisers wishing to check for clashes of dates
are advised to consult the fuller listing.
But PLEASE see important note below, before using any of this info.
1997:
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Sept.15-19 PIDA XXVIII. International contracts: Study
of a practical
case. English/French with simultaneous translation. Paris.
Sept.18 1998 ICC Rules of Arbitration.
Conference, London.
ICC UK, fax 00+44 171 235 5447.
Sept.22-23 &nbsSept.22-23 International telecomm's Contracts and Dispute
Resolution.
London. IBC Conferences katy.searles@ibc.uk.co
Sept.24 Dispute Resolution Workshop.
katy.searles@ibc.uk.co
Sept. 26 IX Milan Colloquium of Arbitrators.
Chamber of National
and Int'l Arbitration, Milan. Fax: 00+39-2-8515.4384.
Sept.26-28 CIArb, Annual Conference. Garden House
Hotel, Cambridge.
'Skills for the Modern Arbitrator."
Oct.23-25 CIArb, Conference, Coral Beach Hotel,
Paphos, Cyprus.
'Skilful Conduct of the Arbitration.'
Oct.23 (IFCAI General Assembly,
for member institutions.)
Oct. 24 International Federation
of Commercial Arbitration
Institutions, Conference, Geneva. 'The Institutional
Response to Changing Needs of Users'. Details from WIPO.
Oct.27-29 International Construction Projects
... standard form
contracts. A three day seminar in Limassol, Cyprus. SGICC.
Oct.27-31 PIDA XXX. International commercial arbitration:
Study of a
practical case under the new ICC 1998 Rules. English/French
with simultaneous translation. Paris.
Oct.31-Nov.2 European Branch CIArb. Conference. Athens, Greece.
contact: George Economou f: 00+3014182021
Nov.19-20 International Arbitration Practice Workshop,
Paris.
contact: ICC.
Nov.28 LCIA European Council
Symposium, Paris.
Nov.28 19H30 Dinner with ICC
for LCIA Symposium and ICCA Council.
Nov.29 (ICCA Council, Paris.
private meeting)
Nov.29
Nov.29 Arbitration Surgery/Workshop.
Hampshire, England.
CIArb Southern Branch, telephone Cliff Wakefield
00 44 1962 886331
Dec 5-7 Intellectual Property, A Special
Fellowship Course.
London (Heathrow). CIArb.
1998:
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May 4-6 Biennial Conference, Paris. ICCA: fax: 00+46-8-723.0176.
May 8-13 LCIA European Council Symposium. Tylney Hall, England.
June 3-6 CIArb, Annual Conference.
Birmingham.
Please CONFIRM all details directly with organisers, the above material
is drawn from various sources and should not be relied on by itself(!).
contact details:
(see also the DIRECTORY, below)
----------------
LCIA (London) t: 00441-719.363.530, f: 00441-719.363.533
SGICC Study Group for Int'l Commercial Contracts.
(London) t: 00441-817-8ondon) t: 00441-817-857-050
f: 00441-817-857-649
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3. DIRECTORY:
The next full Directory will be in EA21. Frequently requested
addresses, and those relating to meetings in this issue's Diary, only,
are listed here.
The Alternative Newsletter
Mistofoles@aol.com
Calendar
http://www.mediate.com
CIArb (London):
71411.2735@compuserve.com
Chartered Institute of Arbitrators http://www.arbitrators.org
CIArb East Anglia Branch: http://www.morris.co.uk/ciarb/ciarbea.htm
Danish Institute of Arbitration http://www.denarb.dk
European Arbitration:
mchapman@zen.dedal.fr.net
backissues on:
http://www.idun.unl.ac.uk/~elm8baylyg/ea.html
HKIAC: &>
HKIAC:
adr@hkiac.org
Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre
http://www.hkiac.org
ICC (Paris):
101643.1223@compuserve.com
International Chamber of Commerce http://www.usa1.com/~ibnet/icchp.html
ICC-Asia: ICC Regional Office for Asia (Hong Kong)
100443.2325@compuserve.com
LCIA: http://www.lcia-arbitration.com
PIDA of the ICC, Paris.
conf@iccwbo.org
(Programme de l'Institut de Dix Ans) http://www.iccwbo.org
UNCITRAL &p; http://www.un.or.at/uncitral
WIPO
arbiter.mail@wipo.int
http://www.wipo.int
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4. NEWS ITEMS.
The Interarb Rules:
-------------------
As promised in EA19 these are now in their first draft. Rather
than burdening this newsletter, which is meant to be readable as a simple
short e-mail message, with these, they are being sent out as a separate
message.
Two versions of this will be sent out:
INTERARB RULES (TEXT) is a plain ASCII text version, which
should be readable by everyone
INTERARB RULES (BASE64) is a Word for Windows file, encoded into
the base64 transmission code, if your machine reads this it should make
for a pleasanter text.
I am more than happyp;I am more than happy to mail out floppy discs with the rules
on, but the draft is at such an early stage, that is perhaps a little premature
!
Comments please (on concept as much as on detail) and if
possible before September 12th.
Recent publications:
--------------------
The FIDIC Form of Contract (Second Edition). Nael Bunni.
Blackwell Science, July 1997. GBP 79-50. 650pp, hbk. ISBN 0-632-04079-3.
Bernstein's (now Bernstein, Tackaberry and Marriott's) third
edition of the Handbook of Arbitration Practice is now heralded for publication
in December 1997. Price 'at least' GBP 110-00 (according to the publisher's
own flyer).?? pp. ISBN 0 421 56540 3
Hong Kong Meeting :
-------------------
ICC-Asia is planning its first major conference in
Asia. Co-hosted with the HK branch of the Chartered Institute, HKIAC
and the new Hong Kong Institute of Arbitration, the conference takes place
following the Goff Lecture (Nov.12) on Thursday Nov 13 to Sat am Nov. 15.
A mock case between a Chinese and a Canadian party, sited
in Hong Kong, will highlight the new ICC rules (which come into force on
Jan 1, 1998).
Then there is an afternoon in which specialists from half
a dozen or more jurisdictions around Asia will give news on their countries.
Saturday morning will
Saturday morning will be devoted to HK and the PRC - comparing approaches,
and predicting how they'll interact on the arbitration field.
Brochures will be sent out in early September, but provisionally
it is hoped speakers/participants will include: Dr. Robert Briner, Chair
of the ICC Court, Dr. Michael Buhler (White & Case Paris),
Robert Knutson (Masons London), Jan Paulsson (Freshfields, Paris
- who is giving the Goff Lecture), Renzo Morera of Rome/Milan,
and various local specialist contributors.
Contact Louise Barrington at ICC-Asia (see e-mail address in Directory).
+++++++++++++++++++++
5. FEATUREARTICLE:
Fairy Stories and Arbitration
-----------------------------
Thanks to all those who sent in additions to the bibliography, the update version follows :
'Age of Lags, The.'
European Branch CIArb Newsletter 3(3), 1-2.
Michael Chapman, 1995.
Altimen, The continuing saga of the'
European Branch CIArb Newsletter 5(1), 7.
JKS, 1997.
and in:
EA11(4)
'Arbour, The Wonderful Tale about, The Wonderful Tale about An. (In particular, the interesting
story about people and the extraordinary tale about a new variety of flowering
plant.)'
pp. 23-30, in 'Arbitration Bill 1995: The Second Reading
in the House
of Commons', by Francis Miller (ISBN 0 9514295 6 6).
'British Gelatin: is it consolidated, or are you petrified ?'
European Branch CIArb Newsletter 5(1), 6-7.
1997.
and in:
[1997] ADRLJ 169-171.
'.............Dispute Resolution'
European Branch CIArb Newsletter 3(4) ; 3.
John Sykes, 1995
and as 'Dispute Resolution'
Arbitration News and Views 30, 21.
'Gold Diggers, The.'
European Branch CIArb Newsletter5(1), 4-5.
1997.
'Just Touzany'
European Branch CIArb Newsletter 4(4), 6-7.
1996.
'Simplicity of Alternatives, The'
European Branch CIArb Newsletter 4(4), 5.
John Sykes, 1996.
and in:
EA08(4).
'Three Little Committees, The'
Arbitration International 11(1), 100.
'via', Howard Holzmann, 1995.
'UNCITRAL and the Seven Parliamentary Counsel.'
Arbitrl.'
Arbitration International 11(1), 98-99.
'via', Howard Holzmann, 1995.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
There is another one in ADRLJ ! ! ! !
There is a second one in News and Views, too.
I am again grateful to the author for permission to reproduce the following example:
The Gold Diggers
Long long ago some people who lived near to a huge forest,
which occupied most of their region of the Country, would occasionally
see -often in the unclear halflight of early morning or late evening, small
creatures who would emerge cautiously from the forest, wander around the
edge and then disappear again into the leafy darkness.
After a number of such sightings -in different areas at different
times- it became evident that the small creatures were of human form but
diminutive stature. It seemed that they wandered along and in and out of
the edge of the forest but never strayed far from it. This puzzling matter
was of course of great concern to the Government which appointed a special
commission to investigate, report and make appropriate recommendations
concerning the little people. By this time -of course- these same `little'
people had been named in innumerable Government documents and (therefore?)
by the Press (with great invention and originality) "Diminutive Wanderers
around the Regional Fs
around the Regional Forest", a clumsy title which was rapidly reduced for
ease of reference to its acronym DWARF.
Very few people -even now, in these internetional days, are
aware of the accidental discovery of DWARFs so long ago and in spite of
the efforts of many different bodies -and those of private investigators
(many of whom were concerned about the human[?] rights of such DWARFs and
many of whom were even more concerned about the environmental impact these
little people would have on the forest), very little is known or understood
about their way of life, culture and so on. It is believed that they live
to advanced ages but that they keep very much to themselves. Extraordinarily
they seem to have a mistrust and aversion to ordinary human beings.
Probably the best known DWARFs in history are the group of
seven industrialised DWARFs who rescued from a fate worse than death the
beautiful young maiden who had fled from her pursuers into the Forest and
thereafter preserved her anonymity by adopting the soubriquet (if that
is the correct word for a name adopted by such a pretty girl) `Snow White',
Actually she had black hair and at the time of her rescue was white from
sheer exhaustion and fear.
As we have all learned from the early records of this dramatic
event the magnificently generous and hospitable seven they were named Happy,
Grumpy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, Dopy and Doc byful, Dopy and Doc by Snow White who could not
pronounce or spell their real names (she also gave names to some of their
friends too).
The Seven Dwarfs, as we came to know them, were miners. They
had a very nice little gold mine deep in the forest and every day they
would happily go to work -with a "Heigh" and a "Ho" to dig up enough gold
to provide an adequate minimum wage for each of them.
Actually they usually disagreed about what should be a minimum
wage - Happy didn't care, Sleepy had a short attention span of only a couple
of hours so never heard the end of any argument, Bashfull was never really
prepared to say what he thought (because Grumpy got so angry) and Dopey,
of course, didn't really understand the problem. Sneezy's and Doc's views
simply had to be ignored because they were both obsessed with the ever
increasing cost of the provision of medical facilities and their opinions
became unrealistic. In any case their arguments were all rather pointless
because they shared their wages anyway.
They did have a problem however in that they were getting
older and life was not as it used to be. Sneezy's health went from bad
to worse. Dopey found his memory failing and even Happy smiled less frequently.
Grumpy became even more short tempered. At last it was Bashful who said
to Doc: "We must do something: it is getting more and more difficult to
maintain output and yet with the mut and yet with the market falling we must find ways to increase
productivity. We seven can no longer achieve the necessary turnover."
They discussed the problem at length, of course -even keeping
Sleepy awake during complete meetings- and decided that they needed help:
by recruiting worker dwarfs they could increase output sufficiently to
allow for market fluctuations and be able to pay reasonable wages to their
worker dwarfs.
This worked for a time of course but then became `uncomfortable'.
The worker dwarfs objected to the seven working alongside them for instance,
because they said it "constituted an unwarranted intrusion into their privacy"
(and the seven could see when they started and stopped work). When in response
however `the Seven' stopped work turnover, productivity and profitability
fell and the worker dwarfs complained of low wages, unsafe working conditions,
long hours -and that the Seven were taking a disproportionate income. By
this time the worker dwarfs had elected one of their number as a representative;
a charming, friendly dwarf called Chummy. He was very helpful and explained,
so well, all the problems of the worker dwarfs in a way in which the `Seven'
had never even imagined. The outcome was all very sad. They found that
they owed all the worker dwarfs so much in compensation and income was
so low that having paid all the wages -and of course Chummy's fees, commissions
afees, commissions
and expenses- there was very little left for the destitute seven.
"A friend of mine can probably advise a remedy", said Chummy.
"His name is `Conny' and he has some experience of management consultancy."
The seven agreed; Conny came; Conny examined the mine, the
labour plans and the accounts and said: "This mine cannot support all of
you." The Seven were shocked of course and the subsequent discussions about
what to do went on and on (except Grumpy who was speechless, Sleepy who,
true to form, had nodded off and Dopey who couldn't understand why it was
necessary to do anything anyway). Eventually with help from Chummy and
Conny they evolved a plan.
"We have had so much experience of our little mine over many
long years that instead of depending on digging and selling gold we will
sell our knowledge: we will teach people to dig!" The idea caught on very
quickly. Grumpy pointed out: "We should start with our own: they have no
idea how to dig." Happy felt a bit uneasy and protested: "We've been approving
their work how can we say it's not good enough?" "Well", said Doc, "there
is no doubt it's getting more and more complicated to cope with health
and safety rules and the new environmental provisions -every time we hit
a rabbit burrow we are supposed to provide alternative accommodation."
"So", said Conny, "the answer is clear. We must identify `difficult work'
and ifficult work'
and say that only certificated diggers can work there: then we must design
certificates and make courses available to train people to qualify for
the certificates." Chummy pointed out that some of `his members' were already
highly qualified and after a bit more discussion they agreed to the issue
of a limited number of Honorary Certificates. Doc, Happy and Grumpy agreed
to sort out a training course programme and Conny said he would help Chummy
to agree a suitable set of notes and fees.
Bashful felt he couldn't take part in the training course
because he would find it too embarrassing and Sneezy didn't want to spread
germs (Sleepy had nodded off again and Dopey was trying to work out why
anyone should need to be taught to dig).
It all worked very well however and a lot of the worker dwarfs
applied for courses for certificates -particularly when they found there
was no gold left in the `easy' areas which did not require certificates
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
(to be continued!)
+++++++++++++++++++++
6. LETTERS:
From Michael Reynolds Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 10:12:23
1997 10:12:23
Michael,
Many thanks for the recent issue.
I caused a bit of a storm recently over comments I
made in Construction News about the appointment and qualifications of arbitrators
and compounded my remarks by suggesting English domestic construction arbitration
is lagging behind other countries! Why does it take only 3 0r 4 days
hearing in France and 20 weeks in England for a similar matter?
We must set up a dialogue with your members about
this.
(END)
[Your editor has some cynical thoughts of his own on this subject.
Thoughts confirmed by one busy (non-lawyer) professional bemoaning an appointment
not coming his way and the consequent financial loss. He was not going
to be inactive, the complaint was _not_ at the lack of academic (or other)
stimulation from arbitration, the complaint was purely financial, so arbitration
-in that one case- must have been paying over normal professional rates.
Could this be a germ towards answering Michael Reynolds' problem?
If so I as a non-lawyer say in all humility to Michael -who is
a lawyer- that perhaps a minority of expert-arbitrators (non lawyers) wish
to earn what they _think_ lawyers earn. All professions have a range of
individuals ... and all professions tend to be judged by the outside world
by the 'war stories' they create!
Less cynically: r>Less cynically: Are not many civil law arbitrations much cleaner
and quicker because the sordid bits have already been picked through by
an Expert ... who may even have had his own hearings. If so, is this reflected
in 'the English System' where there is a few days of hearing (of an appeal
in court) which decides the matter after many weeks of picking through
the evidence by the expert(-arbitrator) ?
Less jaundiced comments welcomed !
Ed.]
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COPY DATE for EA22 is: September 19th.
+++++++++++++++++++++
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