New unit to facilitate speedy settlement of disputes

The new Alternative Dispute Resolution Unit (ADRU) could help to position the Caribbean as a preferred place to do business.
“The current economic situation requires regional states to foster business-friendly regulatory environments where investors feel confident to invest,” said Deputy Dean (Postgrad Studies and Research) Faculty of Law at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus Dr. Antonius Hippolyte.
“A key step in achieving this is by ensuring that the resolution of the disputes which are bound to arise from such business transactions are resolved in a speedy and efficient manner,” said Dr Hippolyte who heads the new unit.
He said the scope for expanded ADR services in Barbados and the wider Caribbean cannot be overstated, however the region continues to lag behind the rest of the world because of “outdated” frameworks.
Addressing those gathered at the Law Faculty’s Moot Court Room for Monday morning’s launch of the ADRU, Hippolyte said the unit will help to address this issue.
In addition, he pointed out the positive impact ADR had on reducing the number of cases before the courts. This, he noted, augmented the efficiency of the judiciaries of regional countries “by giving these courts the opportunity to reduce case backlogs currently plaguing them”.
“The ADRU will supplement these initiatives by driving the research necessary to lead to modern, relevant and beneficial policy initiatives in the Caribbean. It will engage with the region’s key policymakers in modernizing their ADR legal frameworks to improve the efficiency with which commercial disputes are resolved and by extension, magnify the attractiveness of these jurisdictions as places for doing business.
“The ADR unit is also envisioned as a training provider, which will seek to develop regional professionals into a cadre of competent ADR practitioners,” he said.
Using the opportunity to also officially launch the faculty’s new International Dispute Resolution Masters of Law programme, Dr. Hippolyte noted the unit will position UWI as a locus of leadership for ADR-related research and policy and capacity building in the region, and work in close collaboration with regional governments, the private sector, and stakeholders including the Barbados-based Arbitration and Mediation Court of the Caribbean, the Barbados Chapter of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and regional arbitration centres.
“Additionally, I should highlight that the ADR unit will complement and consolidate the faculty’s long-standing tradition of corporate and commercial law, as well as play an integral role in the Cave Hill Campus’ goal to be sustainable and self-sufficient through the intensification of entrepreneurial activity,” he stated.
Delivering the feature address, Chief Executive Officer of the British Virgin Islands’ International Arbitration Centre Shan Greer called for more research to be conducted within the Caribbean region in relation to ADR matters.
“Very often the Caribbean is lumped together with Latin America as a cohort and their region is very different to ours. So when you put the research together, we cannot make decisions that are useful for us and certainly, having surveys that are specifically targeted to the region, having conversations with Caribbean lawyers to figure out how we can use arbitration in a way that suits our market, will be very useful,” she said.
The faculty’s Dean Professor Eddy Ventose explained that the ADRU is the second such unit to be established in that department following the 2021 launch of the Law and Health Research Unit.
A third research facility on the Environmental Law, Ocean & Climate Justice Unit is to be established in October.
(JB)