On 5 July, the inaugural meeting of the bilateral Italian-German Arbitration Group was held at Legance’s Milan office, immediately following the second edition of the Italian Arbitration Day. Nearly 40 participants attended the event, who discussed the topic of “Management techniques and teamwork in arbitration”, together with speakers Mr. Christoph Liebscher (Liebscher Dispute Resolution), Ms. Ramona Schardt (Secretary General of the DIS), Ms. Francesca Salerno (Head of Group Significant Litigations, ENEL S.p.A.) and Mr. Alessandro Covi (Herbert Smith Freehills).
Starting from the recent article of Mr. Liebscher (“Teamwork Approach in Arbitration: A New Perspective”, in Journal of International Arbitration, Volume 37, Issue 3 2020, pp. 289 – 324), the panelists discussed whether, going beyond the mere tailoring of procedural rules and tools (e.g. rules for expedited proceedings, soft law instruments as the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration etc.), organizational psychology and management science could help to better understand and manage certain aspects of the arbitration process, in the continuing quest for efficiency in case management. Starting from Mr. Liebscher’s intuition that nowadays arbitration users tend to prefer arbitrators that act as ‘managers’, i.e. arbitrators with management capabilities (such as organizational skills, quick identification of legal and non-legal issues, reading and dealing with underlying emotions), the discussion revolved around the question of whether successful teamwork between the parties, counsels, and arbitral tribunals can be applied in order to improve efficiency of case management. The speakers, starting from the different perspectives arising out from their respective backgrounds, interestingly answered in the affirmative.
The co-chairs of the Group, Ms. Cecilia Carrara and Mr. Gustav Flecke-Giammarco, expressed their satisfaction, also on behalf of the other core members of the Group, with the outcome of this first event and the interest shown by the participants in actively taking part in the Group’s activities.
As already presented in this newsletter, the Group was established in February 2023 with the aim of creating a permanent and open forum to promote closer ties between the Italian and German arbitration communities. To this end, the Group aims to create a network of German-Italian lawyers, academics, members of the judiciary, experts, forensic accountants, translators and court reporters working in the field of arbitration, and to organise conferences, workshops and events in Italy and Germany.
In this sense, after the kick-off event, the Group has already started programming its future activities, also on the basis of the stimulating debate that took place during the meeting on 5 July. The next meeting of the Group will take place on 12 September 2023 at Wagner Arbitration (Hegelplatz 1, Berlin) ahead of the DIS Autumn Conference.
Finally, the Co-Chairs confirm that the bilateral Italian-German Arbitration Group is still open to those who wish to discuss and exchange experiences between the German/German-speaking and Italian arbitration cultures. To join the Group, please send an email to ccarrara(at)legance.it or gustav.flecke(at)7summits.law.
Riccardo Favaro (Legance)
