Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

Almost all Latin-American legal, economic and political systems have been undergoing a crisis of one kind or another. International investments and other business transactions have been affected by currency fluctuations and the uncertain legal and political climate, with the result that loans and other business transactions have been delayed or cancelled. Courts in Latin America are bureaucratic, overloaded and slow to respond; consequently, the public’s opinion of lawmakers, judges and lawyers has declined. (In the last years, different polls showed that justice and lawmakers rank far below 25% in the list of credible institutions). It may be that Latin- American legal systems created under the light of candles two centuries old cannot well serve modern societies without changing. What is apparent is that these legal systems are failing in some way to carry out the role that modern society requires. We can see this in the area of dispute resolution because, with the increased dissatisfaction with the judicial system in Latin America, interest in ADR has mushroomed.

In the last decade, ADR centers in Argentina and Colombia have been actively promoting and teaching arbitration and mediation. Brazil has become receptive to arbitration now that its 1996 Arbitration Law has been held not to violate the country’s constitution. This is a radical and paradigmatic change, since for decades Brazil was reluctant to resign state jurisdiction by permitting arbitration. Even though there has been backward momentum in the latest presidential election, the country seems to be committed to maintaining its achievements in ADR. Other South American countries, including Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Venezuela, Uruguay, Bolivia and Paraguay are experiencing slow but steady growth in the use of ADR. There are ADR centers in all of them and new arbitration laws in Peru and Ecuador following the UNCITRAL model law and arbitration courts in Chile and Argentina showing significant amounts of cases.