Dear Members and Friends,
We are proud to report from a fantastic Round Table at the University of Belgrade with a lively discussion on the advantages of handling arbitrations by regional arbitral institutions. The Round Table was well attended by Serbian and Austrian colleagues and offered the perfect platform to meet colleagues from the region and enhance regional co-operations. Please scroll down to read a short report and access the image gallery.
Our next Round Table abroad will take place
on Thursday, 13 December 2018 in Prague on the eve of the official launch of the Prague Rules. Join in a controversial debate on the Prague Rules – “
By 2030, the Prague Rules will have replaced the IBA Rules in most Continental European international arbitration”.
Enjoy reading and see you at one of our upcoming YAAP events!
Yours,
Patrizia & Filip
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1) YAAP Anniversary Conference: “Time to rejuvenate the New York Convention?”
A controversial debate to explore the needs of modernizing the New York Convention based on the challenges and complexities in today’s application of the convention. The Anniversary Conference will be preceded by the YAAP Annual Meeting and the ArbAut Annual Meeting and followed by a cocktail reception. Topics and speakers will be announced shortly.
Date: Wednesday, 5 December 2018
Time: 4.00 p.m. (YAAP annual meeting),
4.30 p.m. (ArbAut Annual Meeting)
5.00 p.m. (Anniversary Conference)
Venue: Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC), Wiedner Hauptstraße 63, 1045 Vienna
2) YAAP Roundtable in Prague
Jointly with our Czech colleagues, YAAP is organizing a Round Table in Prague on the eve of the official launch of the Prague Rules. After looking into recent trends in the enforcement of arbitral awards, we will witness a controversial Oxford style debate on the Prague Rules in a relaxed and informal setting. The lively discussions triggered by the debate can be continued over drinks.
• Words of Welcome (Jiri Urban, KPMG Prague; Eliane Fischer, YAAP (Freshfields); Filip Boras, YAAP (Baker McKenzie))
• Enforcement of Arbitral Awards in Austria (Martin Hackl, Konrad & Partners)
• Enforcement of Arbitral Awards in the Czech Republic (Kristina Bartoskova, Baker & McKenzie; David Seidl, Squire Patton Boggs)
• Oxford Style Debate on the motion "By 2030, the Prague Rule will have replaced the IBA Rules in most Continental European international arbitration" (Debaters: Ondrej Cech, Dentons; René Cienciala, Havel & Partners; Désirée Prantl, Freshfields; Dimitra Tsakiri, KNOETZL; Moderator: Rotislav Pekar, Squire Patton Boggs) NB: The positions adopted by the debaters do not necessarily reflect and may in fact even be contrary to their personal views. The debate is concluded by a public vote.
• Closing remarks (Lisa Beisteiner, YAAP (zeiler.partners))
Date: Thursday, 13 December 2018, 18:00 pm
The official event will be followed by drinks. Further details on the venue in Prague and travel arrangements will be online soon.
As always, the Round Table is free of charge. To facilitate organization, however, please register here.
3) Austrian Arbitration Academy
The Austrian Arbitration Academy of the University of Vienna offers an intensive, five-day program on "Arbitration Rules in Practice" in cooperation with SHS, VIAC, YAAP and ArbAut. The course takes place in Vienna from 26 February to 2 March 2019, immediately preceding the Vienna Arbitration Days.
The course addresses the following groups of participants:
• young practitioners (in particular junior associates / RechtsanwaltsanwärterInnen) working in the field of dispute resolution
• PhD and diploma students specializing in arbitration
It will cover the following topics:
• Introduction
• The Arbitration Agreement + Constitution of the Arbitral Tribunal
• Organization of Proceedings
• The Arbitral Award + Costs
• Multiparty Arbitration
• Evidence
• The Hearing in Practice
• Mock Organizational Hearing
Successful participants will receive the University of Vienna-Austrian Arbitration Academy-VIAC practice diploma. Austrian associates can receive individual accreditation for the participation from the Vienna Bar Association.
The fee amounts to € 600,00 which includes registration, tuition, lunch & coffee breaks, dinner as well as the registration fee for the
Vienna Arbitration Days (excluding conference dinner & ball).
Application deadline is 30 November 2018. For further details please click
here.
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Looking back: REGIONAL Round Table in Belgrade, 7 November 2018
The REgional Round Table was co-organized by VIAC, the Belgrade Arbitration Center (BAC) and the Serbian Arbitration Association and took place at the Belgrade Faculty of Law. A summary, based on the closing remarks from Milena Djordjević (University of Belgrade) and Patrizia Netal (YAAP):
As an introduction, Maja Stanivuković (President of the BAC) praised the good and close relations between Serbian and Austrian practitioners. VIAC President Günther Horvath questioned the conference title REGIONAL, to propose that we should even go a step further and act as global players in order to compete for large cases having a regional feature.
REshape – The discussion was continued by Philipp Peters (Konrad & Partners) and Dragan Psodorov (Joksović, Stojanović & Partners) who impressively showed how psychological aspects play a role in when companies decide where to arbitrate their disputes. Therefore, regional institutions are advised to better communicate and promote those. Common legal tradition or cultural understanding were mentioned as advantages, but the audience also discussed how prejudices can be overcome: why do regional companies think that for large cases they have to go to Paris or London?
Part of the answer is that the location of the arbitral institution is still perceived as playing a major role for administering the dispute under institutional rules. The important feature of an arbitral institution for being perceived as national/regional/international/global is: how many foreigners are in the governing bodies, how often is arbitration conducted in a language different than spoken at the institution’s seat, how many arbitrators are foreign nationals? The more there are - the more truly international it is.
REschedule – Natascha Tunkel (KNOETZL) and Jovan Nikicević (Baklaja Igrić Tintor) compared cost and duration in regional/global institutions. While it is unsurprising that regional arbitration is less expensive, the audience openly questioned whether this is always good and whether arbitrators will be willing to take over cases where even for larger ones, the fees are ample times lower than of other institutions from Western Europe. As the main driver of cost, counsel fees were critically discussed, Jovan’s contribution was very helpful to understand what large companies in the CEE region look at when retaining counsel and controlling costs. But also other cost factors that favorable in the region, such as interpretation, translation or travel were debated.
REinvent – Helmut Ortner (WilmerHale) and Sara Pendjer (Stanković & Partners) argued that arbitral institutions should promote more expertise in particular industry sectors, for example, in the manufacturing industry where we currently see a significant increase of investments into Serbia. But also regional initiatives, most prominently the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, where the belt passes directly through Serbia, could play a future role. Experiences were shared from the audience with what Chinese parties are interested in: knowing legal risks and dispute resolution mechanisms in countries in which they are making investments along the BRI.
Reunion – The event was followed by a great dinner party with live music and lasted long after midnight. Thank you to Karanović & Partners, KNOETZL, Konrad & Partners and Baker McKenzie for organizing and supporting the dinner.
A photo gallery is available
here.
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