LONGHENG: Experts share experiences on international commercial arbitration

Experts share experiences on international commercial arbitration


American- Cambodian –Business Council in cooperation with US Chamber of Commerce, and the US embassy on June 30 organized the arbitration workshop with about 30 participants from international, local companies, governmental officials to share experience and knowledge in dealing commercial disputes with international commercial arbitration.

“I trust that by the end of this workshop, we will have all have a greater understanding of the importance of arbitration in international contracts and the Cambodia government has tools to negotiate and sign more equitable agreements,” said Bretton G. Sciaroni, chairman of American Cambodia Business Council and legal adviser to the Cambodian government.

Bretton continued that in recent years, a number of these commercial relationships have not been successful, and some are now the subject of litigation or arbitration proceedings. When one looks at the contracts that were signed a decade or more ago, one is struck by the obvious fact that these were very one –sided.

He highlighted that in the early days of the royal government, there was an issue of capacity, and many contracts were concluded that gave an unfair advantage to foreign parties who had the means to hire as well as access to international lawyers.

Mr. Sciaroni has served as the co-chairman of the working group on law, tax, and good governance. Working group are sector committees that include both private sector and government delegates to discuss and resolve problems in the business community.

“One aspect of these contracts that probably did not warrant particular attention was the dispute resolution clause. No doubt, the officials of the royal government probably concluded that other terms and conditions in the contract were more important,” he said, adding that issues such as pricing, distribution of profits, deadlines for performance, scope of the contracts and so on likely assumed a greater important. The dispute resolution clause is important as we are now seeing disputes arising from the non-performance of these international contracts.

“From the earlier days until now, foreign parties to contracts with the government have preferred international arbitration as the means o resolve contractual disputes. Having an understanding of international arbitration and crafting a good arbitration clause can make a big difference,” he stresses. He added that not initially, perhaps, because no one enters into a contract with the idea that it will end up in an unharmonious setting before an international arbitration body.

“You would not enter into a contract unless you believed it was going to be successfully fulfilled. But failure to pay attention to the arbitral clause can lead to unnecessary bad consequences in the out years, when the initial optimism and good will associated with the signing of a contract or other legally binding agreements is manifest.

“In order to create a level paying field for the royal government, we concluded that a workshop with government lawyers was in order. Having been involved in an international arbitration proceeding, we realized that government lawyers need to understand the importance of arbitration as a means of resolving disputes as well as the importance of crafting a good arbitration clause for contracts and other agreements,” he said, adding that this workshop would not have been possible without the support of Deputy Prime Minister Sok An and his staff at the council of ministers. Through his work with the council of jurist and other mechanism of the royal government, the deputy prime minister’s interest in improving our legal capacity is most noteworthy. “We thanked the support of the US embassy, USAID, and the local affiliate of the US Chamber of Commerce,” he added. In a separate case, On July 22, 54 participants will get the certificate as arbitrators that are training at the IFC, member of World Bank. “The 54 Participants are training at the royal academy for judicial professions,” Kea Kunthea, communication officer of IFC told SEAW.

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