Clip length/Date:(16:41min - 05/22/09Y)

Summary: The parties are ready to go, having agreed to arbitration, and some basics, in last week’s episode.

This week brings the real negotiation: How long is this arbitration going to take?

In the second of two parts, Roberto Calabresi, a Florence, Italy, litigator, joins International Dispute Negotiation host Mike McIlwrath, as they play the roles of a claimant and a respondent in a hypothetical commercial contractual dispute that has gone to arbitration.

Roberto--who first appeared on IDN in March 2008, on 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. Roberto represents an Italian technology equipment supplier that has started an arbitration against a Belgian company.

The negotiations take place in the shadow of the international arbitral tribunal: If the adversaries can’t agree on the timelines for the hearings, for the discovery, for the mediation period, etc., then the arbitrators will set it for them. Is it going to be expedited?

The claimant in IDN 72 is demanding $3 million, of which $2 million is being withheld under a contract. The respondent 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.

The goal of Roberto and Mike is to agree as much as possible on the procedural timetable so that the parties, rather the tribunal, maintain control of the process.

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