by Ganesh Sahathevan
In 2019 Professor Graeme Samuel, lawyer and former head of the Australian Competition And Consumer Commission (ACCC) , speaking on behalf of himself and the two other living ACCC chairmen (Alan Fels, and the current chairman Rod Sims) told the ABC that litigants in commercial matters are better off having their disputes resolved via commercial arbitration rather than before an Australian court of law.
Samuel identified "judges with no expertise in the issues concerned" and an "intolerably slow court process" as the main reasons why commercial matters cannot be properly dealt with by the Australian legal system.
As a result Australia has lost ground to Singapore as a venue for high end commercial dispute work. Meanwhile, Australian universities have been churning out in large numbers double degreed lawyers, skilled in law and finance , economics , accounting , engineering and other technical areas. Many of these law graduates are from the ethnic communities, for local Anglo-Irish Australian students prefer the softer Arts/Law combinations.
There is therefore a large pool of multiskilled , multilingual law graduates in Australia who can provide every aspect of commercial dispute resolution here in Australia. There is also a pool of older practising and retired lawyers and judges who have migrated to Australia from Asia who can provide arbitration services.
There is therefore potential for Australia to be the venue for a multiskilled, multilingual commercial arbitration centre that can win business from Asia, the obvious question being why that has not already happened.
The answer may well lie in the fact that the legal profession in Australian is still dominated by legal professional and regulatory bodies manned by judges and lawyers who come from the same pool of "judges with no expertise in the issues concerned" that Samuel spoke of.
The key then to a viable new area of legal business would seem to be in allowing younger lawyers to offer their services free of the impediments described above.
TO BE READ WITH
Monday, September 16, 2019
Arbitration, not court:Former ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel says judges with no expertise in the area ,intolerably slow court process reasons why litigants should prefer commercial arbitration : Singapore, Malaysia arbitration centres get an unexpected boost from a highly regarded Australian business leader
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Graeme Samuel speaks to The Business
Professor Graeme Samuel, lawyer and former head of the Australian Competition And Consumer Commission (ACCC) , speaking on behalf of himself and the two other living ACCC chairmen (Alan Fels, and the current chairman Rod Sims) has told the ABC that litigants in commercial matters are better off having their disputes resolved via commercial arbitration rather than before an Australian court of law.
He has identified "judges with no expertise in the issues concerned" ,and an "intolerably slow court process" as the main reasons why commercial matters cannot be properly dealt with by the Australian legal system.
Samuel's comments have provided an unexpected boost from a highly regarded personality for Singapore and Malaysia's efforts to attract commercial arbitration business from around this region, including Australia. Australian barristers and former judges are already actively seeking work in Singapore and Malaysia,but with not much success. Samuel's comments may well be the catalyst needed to send parties in dispute in Australia to Malaysia or Singapore to have their matters resolved.The additional expense of having matters heard offshore may well be worth the while in terms of savings of time and other costs of having matters heard by arbitrators who are better equipped to handle commercial matters.
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