Launch of the Manual of International Dispute Resolution
6 July 2007
Conflict is not only about warfare. Most conflicts in the world today are about territorial and maritime boundaries, as well as trading, commercial, investment and intellectual property disputes.
“International dispute resolution, in one or another form, is the practical concern of innumerable businessmen, public servants, lawyers and leaders,” says Sandra Day O’Connor, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in her foreword to the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Manual of International Dispute Resolution.
“This manual addresses a topic at the confluence of several powerful trends in contemporary law, commerce and international relations.”
While international arbitration has already been widely written about, this book is unique in that it targets law officers dealing with dispute resolution in small states and developing countries.
It is particularly valuable in countries with limited capacity and resources, where arbitration and negotiated settlement is always preferable to litigation.
In addition, the rapid pace of globalisation means that this subject area is no longer confined to major trading blocs or powerful nations. It is increasingly relevant to smaller nations, or less developed countries, where the impact of global trade is often felt most intensely.
The book not only covers traditional areas of dispute, but also new types of disputes that have emerged, such as arbitrations concerning investment treaty disputes and disputes arising out of the use of the Internet.
The author, Anthony Connerty, is an English barrister and an expert in the field of international dispute resolution. He says, “The Manual tries to look – through the eyes of Commonwealth countries – at the world beyond the Commonwealth: the world of international dispute resolution in the area of inter-State disputes and in the fields of international trade and commerce, investment and intellectual property.”
Writing in the Journal for International Trade and Economic Development, Christopher Kee, Barrister and Solicitor at the High Court of Australia, comments, “Connerty draws on his considerable practical experience in international dispute resolution to deliver a practical text that those in the field will find very useful.”
Notes for editors:
The Manual is divided into five parts, the first dealing with dispute avoidance and dispute resolution, covering supranational disputes, where one or more parties is likely to be a State.
Importantly, this includes methods that are used to prevent disputes from arising at all. This part also introduces the four major dispute resolution processes – litigation, arbitration, alternative dispute resolution and expert determination. Organisations involved in resolving international disputes are presented: Supranational tribunals such as the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and those concerned with international commercial dispute resolution such as the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Part 1 concludes by referring to a number of international treaties and conventions that are of particular relevance to international trade and investment, such as the Washington Convention which is about the settlement of investment disputes between states and nationals of other states.
Part 2 focuses on supranational dispute resolution and covers international law and the Vienna Convention on the Law of the Treaties. It also looks at three areas of growing importance: territorial disputes, maritime delimitation disputes and investor-State disputes.
Part 3 deals with supranational dispute resolution bodies in more detail, including the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the World Bank’s International Centre of Settlement of Investment Disputes and problems that have arisen in the field of investor-State disputes.
Part 4 is concerned with international commercial dispute resolution, covering litigation in national courts and international commercial arbitration. This section compares arbitration to litigation, and looks at the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), Model Arbitration Law and the New York Convention – arguably the most important convention in the field of international commercial arbitration.
International commercial arbitral institutions and their Rules are outlined, including the UNCITRAL Arbitration Laws. The development and the different types of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is introduced. A fourth method of dispute resolution – expert determination -- is considered, with comparisons between expert determination and arbitration.
Part 5 looks at online dispute resolution, including the ICC’s procedure for dealing with documentary credit disputes and the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organisation Domain Name Dispute Resolution System.
Anthony Connerty, Manual of International Dispute Resolution, ISBN 978-0-85092-837-2; November 2006, 372 pages, £30.00.
Published by the Commonwealth Secretariat, Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5HX, UK. Tel +44 (0)20 7747 6342, Fax +44 (0)20 7839 9081, E-mail publications@commonwealth.int, Web www.thecommonwealth.org/publications.
Available in the USA from Stylus Publishing LLC, PO Box 605, Herndon, VA 20172-0605, USA. Tel +1 703 661 1581, or 800 232 0223, Fax +1 703 661 1501, E-mail styluspub@aol.com , Web http://www.styluspub.com/.
For media enquiries, please contact Victoria Holdsworth, Communications Officer, on +44 207747 6383 or via email at v.holdsworth@commonwealth.int
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