The ICC Institute of World Business Law will celebrate its 30th anniversary by returning to the theme discussed at its first annual conference – multiparty arbitration.

Because of the increasing number and complexity of commercial transactions, a growing number of international arbitrations involve disputes arising from or connected with more than one contract and more than two claimants or respondents.

“Users of international arbitration and those who administer the proceedings continue to grapple with the issues raised by the arbitration of disputes involving more than two parties,” said Eric Schwartz, Co-Chair of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the ICC Institute.

“Given that a third of ICC arbitrations are multi-party cases and that relatively little progress has thus far been made in developing rules or a settled jurisprudence with respect to the many related issues that can arise in such cases, the subject of multi-party arbitration remains as topical today-- in fact, possibly even more topical -- than when the ICC Institute was first created,” he added.

The complex issues to be discussed include whether an arbitration clause can be extended to non-signatory claimants or respondents and to what extent one can bring the various partners who have participated in a single economic transaction through several contracts to a single arbitration proceeding.

The conference will also consider whether a defendant can join other defendants, be they privy to the arbitration agreement or third parties, and whether a defendant in the arbitration proceedings can bring a claim against another defendant.

Other topics include the extension of the arbitration clause to claimants, defendants, States or State entities; whether a group of companies’ doctrine exists; the problems raised by class actions in arbitration; and the enforcement of awards rendered in multiparty and multi-contract arbitrations.

These subjects and many others are recurrent in multiparty and multi-contract arbitrations. The 30th anniversary conference will seek to encourage a reflection on a selected number of fundamental issues arising from these complex arbitrations. The discussions should be of great interest to lawyers, arbitrators, magistrates, academics and corporate counsel.

The welcome address will be given by the Chairman of the ICC Institute, Serge Lazareff, Partner, Derains Gharavi & Lazareff, France. General remarks will be made by the Co-Chairs of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the ICC Institute, Bernard Hanotiau, Professor and Partner, Hanotiau & van den Berg, Belgium and Eric A. Schwartz.

Other leading speakers will include Stephen Bond, Former Secretary General of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and John Beechey, Chair of the ICC Court.

The proceedings of the annual meeting will be published in the “Dossiers of the Institute” series, a book prepared in collaboration with ICC publishing.

For more on the conference, please click below:

http://www.iccwbo.org/events/display12/index.html?CodeICMS=S0919

For further information please contact:

Katharine Bernet

ICC Events

Tel: 33-1 49 53 28 91