When the Scottish Arbitration Centre won its bid for Edinburgh to host the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) Congress next year it was further recognition of the country’s leading role as a locus for global arbitration.

The ICCA Congress is the world’s largest conference devoted to international arbitration and the previous two ICCA congresses, held in Singapore and Miami, each attracted more than 1000 arbitration professionals, with VisitScotland estimating this congress is worth around £1.7 million to the Scottish economy.

The Scottish Arbitration Centre, in the capital’s Princes Street, describes arbitration as a commercial, cost-effective and confidential method of resolving disputes and says the Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010 established a modern, innovative arbitration regime to rival any other in the world.

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With a disputes team of more than 100, Brodies LLP is at the forefront of this type of alternative dispute resolution and Stephen Goldie, Head of Litigation and Partner at the firm has 20 years of experience in dealing with a broad spectrum of contentious and business critical matters involving real estate, finance and energy (in particular oil and gas) clients, both domestically and cross-border. He believes that with business disputes, resolution does not have to lie with the court or a judge.

“There are a number of global destinations that are seats of arbitration across the globe, including London, Paris, Stockholm, Singapore and Dubai; all of which deal with international disputes,” he says. “They are increasingly busy as hubs of commerce and with today’s improved communications and the growth of globalisation, business compared to 20 years ago has now reached the stage where there are many parties in different countries involved in business relationships across multiple jurisdictions.

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“For Scotland, the introduction of the Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010 brought legislation into line with modern day arbitration practices, strengthening its position as a place for businesses to come to for the resolution of disputes. That is something that the centre is promoting actively,” he says.

 “There is an increasing tendency to use arbitration as a means to settle disputes. For example, clients in the food and drink, manufacturing and energy sectors are well versed with including arbitration clauses in their cross-border contracts,” he says. “It’s a process by which the parties constitute a private court and it’s a more flexible way to resolve disputes.”

He adds that the actual seat of arbitration is becoming less important for businesses. “The majority of procedural aspects are now conducted via email and conference calls so there is less requirement for a physical presence – whereas with court appearances you ordinarily have to appear in the courtroom, before a judge.

“This is just one of  the attractions of arbitration. You also have the freedom to choose your decision maker so that, in an engineering dispute for example, the arbitrator may be an engineer – and when legal issues come up, advice can be sought from a legal clerk. Court should be the last, not the first, resort when it comes to resolving disputes”, he adds.

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The scale of the companies the firm is dealing with in arbitration matters can range from industry majors to SMEs and supply chain companies. “Flexible and fast resolution is important for smaller companies because there can be an inequality in the spending power of your opponent,” he says, adding that, on any given day, Brodies can be involved in disputes overseas or back in the UK, including at the Court of Session in Scotland.

What is most important, Goldie says, is attempting to reach a resolution without the need for a third party, whether that be a judge or an arbitrator, to reach a final decision.

“When you involve a third party decision maker, that’s when you end up with winners and losers. Where possible, we aim to smooth the wheels of commerce by seeking a resolution which can be to the mutual benefit of both parties and preserves business relationships,” he says.

“Once a case reaches court  or arbitration, it can become adversarial – and in that situation we are ready to fight the client’s corner,” he adds. “But the ideal objective is to get clients to a point where they can settle their differences and move on with their business. It’s not just expensive to go to court but also extremely time consuming for management, who would be better engaged in running their business.”

For more information please visit www.brodies.com