Can We Talk of an Arbitration Culture in Asia?
International commercial arbitration has become the method of choice for commercial relations in Asia. However, it is not clear to what extend it would be possible to say that there exists an arbitration culture in the region, which would presuppose the existence of common institutions and practices. To shed light on this issues, the Center on International Commercial Arbitration brought together prominent arbitration practitioners from various jurisdictions to search for answers to the conference’s question: “Can we Talk of an Arbitration Culture in Asia?” on November 18, 2020.
The speakers included Nicholas Peacock, Partner, Herbert Smith Freehills; Thomas R. Snider, Partner, Al Tamimi & Company; Jingzhou Tao, Independent Arbitrator; Kevin Nash, Deputy Registrar & Centre Director, Singapore International Arbitration Centre; and Jane Willems, Associate Professor, Tsinghua University School of Law. The Center’s Director, Prof. Horacio Grigera Naón, moderated the event. The event was held in the context of the Event Series on Regional Approaches to International Commercial Arbitration of the AUWCL’s Center on International Commercial Arbitration.
The panelists pointed out that while the practices among Asian countries in the field of commercial arbitration increasingly converge, some country-specific particularities still remain. This is especially true in the case of China, which has some particular features. Arbitration in India also has several particular features that make it different from arbitral proceedings in other Asian countries. The differences in terms of submission and evaluation of evidence, of the institution and recognition of the emergency arbitrator, the distribution of costs in an arbitral procedure, and other aspects allows to observe that also within the international framework of commercial arbitration it is possible to undertake a comparative analysis between different “cultures” of arbitral procedures and litigation. Please watch the entire presentation here for the details of this interesting and informative discussion.