Annual Report 2009 - Chartered Institute of Arbitrators

Annual Report 2009PRESIDENT’S REPORTJohn Campbell QCAny essay about the value of ambassadorial work mightread like a travel diary. I can only try to compress myimpressions of a year’s activity into a page. It has been atremendous honour for me to lead the world’s largestprofessional institute for dispute resolvers. A mere list of themany places I have had the privilege to visit would do nojustice at all to the energy and commitment of all CIArb’sdedicated people in London and its 35 branches, nor to theenormous range of vision and skills which I haveencountered.I should like to thank my wife Kate especially for putting upwith so much disruption to our normal lives, and of coursealso to our Executive and our elected branch leaders andmembers for their uniform courtesy, dignity and untiringhelpfulness. It is a pleasure not to have to be in an aeroplaneevery second week!I have tried to lead in a visible way from the front. Not havingmanagerial responsibilities has not always been easy, sincethe speed of an institution’s response cannot possibly matchthat which an impatient one-year President may desire! But Ihope I have planted some seeds, and that the Trustees inparticular will see the value in strategic long term globalthinking, leaving management to the managers.The privilege, for me, lies in being able to meet our growingand inspirational membership, in receiving and generatingideas, proposals and tactics, and in watching them laterturned into firm plans, new adventures and solid resourcesfor the benefit of the entire membership in many countries.The value of having an elected President is quite rightlyquestioned from time to time, but those efforts and contactsare what leadership is really about, and why I believe it isworthwhile having a visible President.Dispute resolution requirements and aspirations all acrossthe world are growing all the time, and the need for ourtraining and education with it. In Scotland, we have justpassed our own Arbitration Act, the first for more than 300years. I am very proud that that work was all but completedduring my year as President. The very fact of the recessionhas generated a renewed interest in what we do in verymany places, just because we do it so well. Western andEastern Europe is seeing growth too, but at a quite differentrate. We have hardly touched South America, though workhas begun. All the messages are positive, but we have somuch to do. Frankly, there is work for three or fourPresidents, if we had them.It seems that part of many countries’ rethinking of their ADRmechanisms – there are so many examples, but I don’t havethe space here - has been to take amuch closer look at their individualdispute resolution legislation andinstitutions. From the formality and significance of giantinternational commercial arbitrations, to the carefulprocessing of tiny consumer disputes, we – the CharteredInstitute of Arbitrators, all 94 years of it - are the home for itall. And we should be very proud of that. But there is agrowing and worrying tendency towards over formalisationin the largest cases, fuelled, it has to be said, by the naturalinclinations of lawyers and the tendency of our transatlanticcousins to want to “discover” everything down to the tiniestemail or receipt. We have to watch out that we are notsimply recreating litigious processes in another form.I am so enthusiastic about our teaching. Collectively, wehave better skills than any other body in the world to passon our knowledge. Thanks to our Practice and StandardsCommittee’s hard work, and the efforts of so many individualmembers, we now publish over 30 Guidelines and sets ofRules for the conduct of dispute resolution work. Oursubsidiary, IDRS Ltd, independently manages more than120 business to business or business to consumerschemes, and more are being added all the time. With thehelp of our Education and Training staff and committee,more and more excellent and better regulated coursework iscoming forward, and most of our branches are feeling theirway with their own higher and higher level teachingambitions. It has been an extraordinary privilege to play evena small part in that work. In the end of the day, it is thoseskills that we leave behind us.Delegation of quality assurance and teaching and exams tobranches in the UK and overseas is paying off and is its ownreward. The quality of our workbooks and tutorials is echoedand copied around the world, and when we meetpractitioners anywhere, the talk is of CIArb’s high standardsand shining excellence. From China’s and Nigeria’s judges tolocal authority mediators in London’s outer burghs, they allcome to talk to us. We are doing something right, but it isup to all of you to spread this message, and whereappropriate, to help with the work. Which of us could notvolunteer to edit even a chapter in a workbook?So what happens next? In a decade we have gone from asmallish construction-based “club” of building law andpractice professionals, to an outward-facing, well organisedChartered Institute, which in my humble opinion is only justbeginning to fulfil its potential. We have embracedinternationalism, and we still have half the world to thinkabout, yet we are also flourishing on our home patch. ThePage 02CIArb Annual Report 2009: Report from the President