Lord Woolf has been honoured with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators’ Centenary Award 2015.
The award recognises outstanding contributions to the promotion, development and implementation of mechanisms other than litigation.
V V Veeder QC, of Essex Court Chambers, then gave this year’s Alexander Lecture, on the subject of, “What matters about arbitration?” He said that, while life should be good for arbitration, there are several who feel that it is “flying ever closer to the sun”.
He urged practitioners to take three points into consideration to avoid the demise of arbitration: it should not be stretched to encompass disputes for which it is not suitable; it is a bottom-up rather than a top-down movement; and more statistical data is needed so that arbitration can be defended and explained.
