Sri Lanka promoted as a global venue for commercial arbitration
Local and foreign participants and officials pose for a picture at the end of the IADRC meeting. Pic by Indika Handuwela
Though Sri Lanka’s ease of doing business index is very low, the country has been promoted as a venue for arbitrations in the region and globally by the International Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre (IADRC) in Sri Lanka.
IADRC, Director, Shehara Varia on Thursday on the sidelines of a post- symposium meeting held at the World Trade Centre in Colombo told the Business Times, “Most commercial parties need a neutral venue to have their arbitrations. We are promoting Sri Lanka as a venue for arbitration in order to increase the contract enforcement index of Sri Lanka as the country’s ease of doing business index is very low. As an institution we wanted to increase the enforcement index and thus took the initiative to form the regional collective.”
“IADRC Sri Lanka provides services for arbitration and mediation to international standards and it was our initiative to form this regional collective. It was our initiative to invite all the regional centres to Sri Lanka, so that we can learn from each other and cooperate,” she added.
The IADRC Sri Lanka held its annual ‘Regional Alternative Dispute Resolution Symposium’ on May 13-15. The symposium was organised in collaboration with the Commercial Law Development Programme of the Department of Commerce USA.
The symposium was attended by members of the legal community and law students of Sri Lanka as well as experts from regional ADR centres in Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Maldives, Malaysia, Mumbai, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore and Thailand. The resource persons included judges of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, representatives from the law firms of White and Case, Norton Rose Fulbright, Quin Emanuel Urquart and Sullivan and T.H.E. Chambers, Washington D.C.
The symposium addressed topics that were vital to the arbitration regime such as the seat of arbitration, the venue and governing law, the role of the judiciary in arbitrations, issues relating to enforcement including the provisions of the New York Convention and how concepts such as ‘public policy’ has been interpreted within the domestic law of countries, arbitration and mediation for commercial dispute resolution, the impact of Al on ADR processes including the recent Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Centre guidelines on the use of Al in arbitrations.
The IADRC signed two Memoranda of Understanding with the Bangladesh International Arbitration Centre and the Legal Aid Society of Pakistan through its flagship project the Musaliha International Centre for Arbitration and Dispute Resolution. The MoU’s pledged cooperation to promote ADR programmes, including arbitration, mediation and other ADR services. Ms. Dhara Wijayatilake is Director and Secretary-General of the Colombo-based IADRC.
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