Bilateral Arbitration Treaty Regime -
Access to Justice for Small & Medium Sized Businesses
An Economic Analysis

Last year’s discussion on how a Bilateral Arbitration Treaty regime will facilitate access to justice for SMEs has created great interest. Therefore, the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand and the New

Zealand Centre of International Economic Law are delighted to facilitate the presentation of:

Investigating the costs and benefits of a proposed Bilateral Arbitration Treaty
Chris Nixon, Senior Economist, New Zealand Institute of Economic
Research & Georgia Whelan, Researcher

“It hurts my head to think about it..." SMEs and the legal framework for international commercial contracts
Hanneke van Oeveren, Victoria University - Law Faculty
Commentator: Gary Born, world leading international arbitration specialist and author of the Bilateral Arbitration Treaty

The Bilateral Arbitration Treaty Regime (BAT) provides a default dispute resolution system in business to business disputes. It is aimed at addressing the adverse consequences that businesses might be facing when they have not agreed on a way to resolve their cross border disputes or, when they do, the agreed dispute resolution clause is invalid or wide open to interpretation. The international litigation system, which is currently the applicable default system is all too often time-consuming, expensive and inefficient.

Whether a BAT will yield economic benefits for SMEs- through reducing the risks associated with current dispute resolution practices- and in turn New Zealand’s economy as whole is the focus of the first part of this lecture. The results of a survey among New Zealand’ exporters will be released and critically examined. The survey was utilised to establish current exporting practices of firms and determine
(a) their response to the potential implementation of a BAT; and
(b) any insights to their own international dispute experiences.

“How do SMEs behave when negotiating cross border contracts? What are the important contract clauses SMEs are negotiating with their foreign counter parts? Are written contracts common among SMEs in the international context?” Are only some of the questions which will be explored in the second presentation to answer whether a BAT would cure some of the pitfalls of SME contracting.

Gary Born is the chair of Wilmer Hale’s International Arbitration Practice Group. He has been ranked for the past 20 years as one of the world’s leading international arbitration practitioners and the leading arbitration practitioner in London. For more information http://www.wilmerhale.com/

Please RSVP to law-events@vuw.ac.nz by 25 February 2016.