Originially from: World Arbitration and Mediation Review (WAMR)

The Arbitral Agenda for UNCITRAL
I.
To celebrate the Fortieth Anniversary of the Convention on the
Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York, 10 June
1958), UNCITRAL held a special commemorative New York Convention Day.
Leading arbitration experts, individuals who were involved in drafting the
Convention, representatives of Member States and other invited individuals
presented reports and delivered remarks on arbitration issues. In response to the
event, the Commission requested that the Secretariat investigate and develop
possible areas in which the Commission might focus its work during the thirtysecond
session in 1999.
The resulting document, a note prepared by the Secretariat, “briefly
discusses certain issues and problems identified in arbitral practice in order to
facilitate a discussion in the Commission as to whether it wishes to put any of
those issues on its work programme. The issues discussed include certain aspects
of conciliation proceedings; the legislative requirements of a written form for the
arbitration agreement; arbitrability; sovereign immunity; consolidation of more
than one case into one arbitral proceeding; confidentiality of information in
arbitral proceedings; raising claims in arbitral proceeding for the purpose of setoff;
decisions by ‘truncated’ arbitral tribunals; liability of arbitrators; power by
the arbitral tribunal to award interest; costs of arbitral proceedings; enforceability
of interim measures of protection; and discretion to enforce an award that has
been set aside in the State of origin. Any other issues pertaining to the law of
arbitration may be raised at the session of the Commission for the possible
consideration by the Commission.”
II.
Recognizing the trend toward conciliation, also referred to as mediation,
Section A of the note addresses issues relating to conciliation. The note first
explains that conciliation means “proceedings in which an independent and
impartial person is assisting parties in dispute to reach a settlement.” The note
then differentiates conciliation from both settlement negotiation and arbitration.
In a settlement negotiation, no impartial third party is involved and arbitrations
may not be voluntary, and—if no agreement is reached between the parties to an
arbitration—the arbitrator may impose binding decisions in the award. Whereas
independent third parties conduct a conciliation that is completely voluntary and