The lady chief justice has proposed the creation of a high-powered committee of London lawyers to develop a ‘holistic approach’ to international dispute resolution.
Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill was speaking on Tuesday at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, where she delivered a lecture on mediation after the Singapore Convention. She said: ‘Could we see the establishment of a London Dispute Resolution Committee to make recommendations on how best we can provide a holistic approach to international mediation, arbitration and litigation? Such an approach would mirror the considered approach taken in Singapore.’
The Singapore Convention is a ‘uniform and efficient framework’ for the enforcement and invocation of international settlement agreements resulting from mediation. It has been signed by 57 countries, including by the UK in May 2023, and ratified by 14. The UK is yet to ratify the convention.
Carr said: ‘Such a [committee] could draw its membership from those engaged in commercial mediation, arbitration and litigation, international mediators, arbitrators and commercial court judges, the Judicial ADR Committee, the Civil Justice Council and Civil Mediation Council, as well as users of the three forms of dispute resolution. This would make it well-placed to make well-considered recommendations about how best London could develop a more fully holistic approach to the three forms of international dispute resolution, one that views the three as forming a coherent ecosystem.’
Carr told the audience that the UK could take inspiration from Singapore’s International Mediation Institute, which was established to regulate mediators, by creating a formal council to enhance standards.
She added: ‘A lot of the work that they carry out is, of course, already carried out here by the Civil Mediation Council, the Family Mediation Council, and organisations like CEDR. Might there be a need, however, to broaden out their work along the lines taken in India or those in Singapore? This might be particularly important given the growth in international mediation, and in ensuring that England and Wales is best able to operate as a leading international mediation centre.’
She also proposed the establishment of a training institute in negotiation, mediation and dispute resolution, based at a university. This would ‘ensure that ongoing development of mediation and the other two forms of dispute resolution (as well as others) were subject to detailed theoretical and, importantly, empirical research’ could add ‘to our dispute resolution ecosystem’.
Answering questions, Carr said training was ‘key’ to good mediators and regulation ‘may play an increasingly important role’.
Asked about the need for litigation to create case law, Carr said: ‘Mediation needs litigation. We need case law to inform what the proper outcome is of any legal dispute there is. This is the whole point of complementarianism and working together, they need each other.’
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