ICC has announced the selection process and called for candidates to fill the position of Chairman of the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

Under the provisions of the ICC Constitution, the Chairman of the Court is elected by the ICC World Council upon a recommendation of the Executive Board. The Executive Board has an established Nominations and HR Committee whose function is, inter alia, to recommend to the Executive Board a candidate for the post of Chairman of the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

However, in order to ensure that the ICC international arbitration community is instrumental in the process for selecting a new Chairman of the Court, an ad hoc Selection Committee has been created which is representative of that community. The Selection Committee is chaired by Peter Wolrich, the Chairman of

the ICC Commission on Arbitration. The other voting members of the Selection Committee are as follows:

Michael Bühler

Partner, Jones Day (Paris)

Member, ICC International Court of Arbitration

Ahmed S. El-Kosheri

Senior Partner, Kosheri, Rashed & Riad (Cairo)

Vice-Chair, ICC International Court of Arbitration

Serge Lazareff

Avocat à la Cour (Paris)

Chairman, ICC Institute of World Business Law

Alan Redfern

Barrister, One Essex Court-Chambers of Lord Grabiner QC (London)

Vice-Chair, ICC International Court of Arbitration

Carl F. Salans

Founding Partner – Salans (Paris)

Vice-Chair, ICC International Court of Arbitration

Claus von Wobeser

Managing Partner – Von Wobeser y Sierra, S.C. – Attorneys (Mexico City)

Vice-Chair, ICC International Court of Arbitration

Victor Fung, Vice-Chairman of ICC, and Guy Sebban, Secretary General of ICC, will participate in the Selection Committee as observers. They are both members of the Nominations and HR Committee which is the body mandated under the ICC Constitution to submit a name to the ICC Executive Board and World Council for a final decision.

The Selection Committee will be assisted by a Secretariat comprised of a staff member of the ICC Court Secretariat, Emmanuel Jolivet, General Counsel, and of external consultants specialized in the recruitment of high level professionals from the firm Egon Zehnder International. The Secretary General of the Court will also be consulted throughout the process.

The first meeting of the Selection Committee was held on 25 April. The committee will meet again on 14 and 29 May. The announcement advertising the position of Chairman of the Court was posted on ICC’s website on 22 April and has also been advertised in the Financial Times and Le Monde. The application period closes on 16 May 2008.

It is ICC’s intention to ensure an open and transparent process that is consistent with the provisions of the ICC Constitution.

In the event that a suitable candidate is not identified for election at the next meeting of the World Council in June of this year, it may be necessary to put in place an interim arrangement for the Chairman of the Court. This issue is presently being examined by the Secretary General and the General Counsel of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and a proposal to deal with that eventually should it arise will be forthcoming shortly.

The call for candidates follows the resignation of Pierre Tercier, the current Chairman of the ICC Court. Mr Tercier’s resignation followed a decision by the ICC Chairmanship not to propose to the governing bodies of the ICC the renewal of his term ending on 31 December 2008.

The Chairmanship stated that its decision had not been taken on the basis of Mr Tercier’s professional activities as Chairman of the Court, for which he was held in very high regard, but rather was due to divergent views on the operational relationship between the Secretariat of the Court and the ICC.

Unfortunately, a number of misconceptions subsequently arose concerning this divergence of opinion. Notably, whether the independence of the ICC Court and its Chairman had somehow become compromised or were in issue. This is not the case.

The Court remains an independent body and it carries out its functions under the ICC Rules of Arbitration with complete impartiality and independence from the ICC. Equally, the Chairman of the Court is independent and will remain so. The new selection process for the Chairman of the Court is intended to ensure that the independence of the Court and its Chairman remains unquestionable and that the ICC Court is able to attract a high quality calibre successor to Mr Tercier.

The change in leadership of the Court comes at a time when ICC has significantly increased investment in the Court, most notably by announcing plans to open offices in Hong Kong and Singapore. Ongoing restructuring and other capital expenditure plans which have been in the works since last year will also move forward as planned. Human resources will be increased accordingly in order to ensure that the Secretariat of the Court is able to continue to render the high quality service to which users are accustomed.

“Dispute resolution and, in particular, arbitration are core activities of ICC,” said ICC Chairman Marcus Wallenberg. “These activities represent a major part of our organization and deserve to receive our proper attention as well as an appropriate allocation of resources. We shall continue to invest in and support the development of those activities. Continuing to provide the high quality services for which ICC is known and maintaining strong relationships with the arbitration community remain our priorities,” he said.