RESOLVING DISPUTES SMARTER: MEDIATION, ARBITRATION & BEYOND

On May 19th, during the ISF Congress in Lisbon, our colleague Fabrizio Ceccarelli, vice chair of the ISF Arbitration Committee, participated in a panel talk broadcast on the World Seed Channel alongside Hélène Guillot, representing the ISF Court of Arbitration and Jaine Chisholm Caunt, Director General of GAFTA (Grain and Feed Trade Association).

Hélène Guillot and Fabrizio Ceccarelli illustrated the dispute resolution methods provided by the ISF trade rules, which have been in place for around 80 years, in light of the latest amendments. Among these updates is the establishment of a centralized court of arbitration at the ISF secretariat in Nyon, Switzerland.

An obligation to attempt mediation and conciliation before initiating the actual arbitration procedure was also introduced.

The contribution from the Director General of GAFTA was highly interesting, as their arbitration rules are comparable to those of the ISF and they handle around one hundred arbitrations per year.

As always, but particularly following the latest updates to the ISF rules, the ISF Mediation, Conciliation and Arbitration procedure represents a faster and far more technical solution for settling disputes compared to ordinary legal channels. The technical expertise of the ISF Arbitrators allows for a very deep understanding of the disputes, given that the Arbitrators themselves are expert operators within the seed sector.