In-house counsel in Europe's corporations say their clients doubt international arbitration's ability to meet their needs and are becoming reluctant to use it to resolve disputes, according to delegates at the first meeting of the Commission on Settlement in International Arbitration last week.


The former Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, told the event, held at Herbert Smith's City offices, that he hoped the commission - set up by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) - could address an apparent lack of confidence in mediation among arbitrators, according to Danny McFadden, a CEDR director and rapporteur to the commission.



CEDR admitted in a statement that, though arbitration is seen as a primary method for resolving international commercial disputes, it is 'attracting increasing amounts of criticism worldwide for being slow and expensive, with settlement rates reputed to be significantly lower than they are in most state commercial court proceedings'.



CEDR intends for the commission to produce a white paper how these problems could be dealt with in 2008.



Rupert White