Find Lawyers in Vancouver, British Columbia for International Arbitration

When an international commercial dispute arises, many lawyers’ immediate reflex is to institute proceedings in court; however, there is a more effective dispute resolution mechanism - arbitration. International commercial arbitration (ICA) is recognized the world over as a leading method of private dispute resolution.
Some of the benefits may be summarized:

• ICA allows parties to select as adjudicators individuals who are highly specialized and experienced in the subject-matter of the dispute. Since the only requirement to be named as an arbitrator is that the individual be an adult with capacity, parties are free to select jurists and non-jurists alike. An expert tribunal can cut down on much of the preliminary work of explaining the contours of a specific and often complex area requiring technical expertise. The tribunal’s specialized knowledge also increases the likelihood of a correct decision within the given context;

• ICA allows parties to take the dispute resolution outside of the sphere of national courts that may not be well suited to deal with dispute of the parties in question;

• In contrast with court proceedings which are often governed by rigid and detailed rules of procedure, parties to an ICA are free to determine the law and rules governing both the substance of their dispute and the arbitration process itself allowing for maximum flexibility;

• ICA may be carried out ad hoc or under the auspices of arbitral institutions such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) or the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA);

• While confidentiality is the exception in most national courts, it is the rule in ICA. This is particularly appealing to clients who are particularly weary of confidential and valuable information becoming public record;

• Due to international legal instruments such as the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (“New York Convention”) and the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial arbitration, an arbitral award is more powerful, from an enforcement perspective, than the decision of a national court. The New Your Convention has been ratified by 156 state parties as of May 2015. Legislation based on the UNCITRAL Model Law has been adopted in 69 states (totaling 99 jurisdictions).