Clip length/Date:(18:25min - 05/16/09)

Summary: In this week’s episode, the first of two parts, Roberto Calabresi, a Florence, Italy, litigator, returns to International Dispute Negotiation to join host Mike McIlwrath in playing the role of a claimant in a hypothetical contractual dispute that has gone to arbitration.

Roberto--who in March 2008 appeared on IDN 18, discussing expertise proceedings in civil law countries--negotiates with Mike, who plays the respondent’s representative, for the terms of the arbitration that the adversaries are about to undertake. In IDN 71, and next week in IDN 72, Roberto role-plays his representation of an Italian technology equipment supplier that has started an arbitration against a Belgian company.

The claimant is demanding $3 million, of which $2 million is being withheld under a contract. The respondent, being represented by Mike, has counterclaimed for $6 million, and is demanding a right of set-off. The dispute involves legal and complex factual issues. The parties have agreed in their contract to ad hoc arbitration under Uncitral rules, with Geneva as the place of arbitration.

In the hypothetical dispute, three arbitrators already have been appointed, and a procedural hearing is scheduled for next week. Roberto and Mike attempt to agree on the arbitral procedure they would like to have, based on their different views of the case, and how they would like the proceedings to develop and for the evidence to emerge. Their goal is to agree as much as possible, so that they can limit the number of procedural issues, set to be determined in an arbitral hearing on the process structure.

This week, the parties' representatives discuss the general concepts that they wish to apply to the arbitration: the identification of any preliminary or threshold issues that can be decided by the tribunal at the outset; whether and how to consider the possibility of mediation, whether and how expert evidence should be presented; and whether the proceedings should default to civil law practice for evidence rules (since the parties are both from civil law jurisdictions), or international practice.

In IDN 72 next week, Roberto and Mike continue their negotiation with the goal of agreeing, as much as possible, a procedural timetable for their dispute.

Having trouble hearing this podcast? Download the file to your computer by right-clicking here and selecting "save as" or "save target".