Efficiency is an important factor in arbitration and likely key to its long term survival as a favoured form for resolving international commercial disputes. At the same time efficiency needs to be tempered by basic procedural principles, such as party autonomy and due process, as well as by general considerations of fairness. Recent years have seen tendencies to push the efficiency factor to the extent that it may start to infringe upon such principles and considerations. The lecture will offer examples of such tendencies and suggest that it may be time to push back.
Robin Oldenstam specializes in arbitration and civil litigation and is the head of Mannheimer Swartling’s International Arbitration Practice. He is also the current Swedish member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration.
He has acted as counsel in numerous arbitrations under the SCC, the ICC, UNCITRAL, ICDR, Swiss Rules and other rules as well as in ad hoc proceedings. His experience includes disputes from many areas and industries.
He was chairing the Swedish Arbitration Association (the SAA) between 2010-2014. The SAA is the leading association for arbitration practitioners in Sweden.
Robin also has extensive experience as an arbitrator including a large number of appointments as a sole arbitrator and as chairman in both domestic and international arbitrations. He has served as arbitrator under ad hoc and various institutional rules, and in disputes governed by a variety of applicable laws. Robin is a fellow with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
He is responsible for the Swedish Bar Association’s mandatory course in trial advocacy and regularly lectures on arbitration and litigation at several university courses and training programs for professionals. He is the main author of Mannheimer Swartling’s Guide to Commercial Dispute Resolution and the Swedish chapter of the Practitioners Handbook on International Commercial Arbitration (Oxford University Press), as well as various articles and case notes in professional journals. Robin is also a member of the editorial board for Global Arbitration Review (GAR).