Originially from: World Arbitration and Mediation Review (WAMR)

Rice Fowler Reports on Arbitration in Latin American
[Editor’s Note: The law firm of Rice Fowler has agreed to provide
WAMR with a series of reports on the law and practice of international
arbitration in Latin America. Rice Fowler has substantial expertise in foreign
investment and arbitration in the United States and Latin America, and an
extensive Latin American practice with an office in Bogota, Columbia, and
independent correspondent relations with law firms in Caracas, Mexico, San Jose,
San Juan, and Sao Paulo. The firm also maintains offices in New Orleans,
Houston, London, and Coral Gables. The present article is the result of the efforts
of Ninfa Urdaneta, who works with the law firm of Hume & Johnson, P.A., Fort
Lauderdale, FL. She was a law clerk to a Justice of the Supreme Court of
Venezuela. Ms. Urdaneta can be contacted at (954) 755-9880, or at
nurdaneta@hotmail.com. John H. Rooney, Jr. is Chair of the International
Arbitration Committee of the Inter-American Bar Association, and Co-Chair of
the Inter-American Law Committee of the International Law and Practice Section
of the American Bar Association. He conducts an international law seminar at the
University of Miami School of Law, and is a lecturer in the International Summer
Program of the Loyola University (New Orleans) School of Law. Mr. Rooney
practices at the Miami, Florida office of Rice Fowler. The Miami office is located
at 2655 LeJeune Road, Suite 805, Coral Gables, FL 33134. Mr. Rooney can be
reached at (305) 445-8312, or at jrooney@ricefowler.com or jhrooney@ibm.net.
This is the second in a series of articles on the law and practice of international
commercial arbitration in Latin America, each of which is being co-authored by a
distinguished Latin American practitioner in the field.]
THE LAW AND PRACTICE OF INTERNATIONAL
COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION IN VENEZUELA
by Ninfa Urdaneta & John H. Rooney, Jr.1
In this report, we provide an overview of the governing principles for the
conduct of international arbitration and the recognition and enforcement of
foreign arbitral awards in Venezuela. On April 7, 1998, a new arbitration law
went into effect with the publication of the Law of Commercial Arbitration in the
Official Gazette No. 36,430 (Extraordinary) of the Republic of Venezuela. By its
terms, the law regulates both the conduct of the International Arbitration within
Venezuela and the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. It is
the intended policy of the law not to affect Venezuela’s treaty obligations in the
area of arbitration. Venezuela has ratified the Convention on the Recognition and
Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, the Inter-American Convention on
International Commercial Arbitration and the Inter-American Convention on the
Extraterritorial Efficacy of Foreign Judgments and Arbitral Awards.