Italy is increasingly following the direction of extending the culture of arbitration, traditionally used to resolve controversies concerning international commercial transactions. The idea put forward by the International Arbitration Chamber is to use tax benefits and add compulsory subjects to mediation procedures, such as assisted negotiation and arbitration. The aim is to make the parties of a commercial agreement prefer the use of arbitration procedures in case of disputes. Mediation is one of the most used legal instruments in international controversies resolution procedures, as it allows litigants to identify a reparative agreement mediated by the expertise and advice of an international trade law attorney, able to produce a settlement that protects the interests of both parties.
What international commercial lawyers do for International Transaction
The markets’ need for expansion multiplies the interactions among companies located and operating in different countries. This raises the offer of different international contracts, thus increasing the chances of legal disputes, that prove inevitably difficult to manage despite all contracts clearly stating which law applies to international agreements. Italy has not yet fully assimilated the culture, present in common law, that implies a utilitarian approach to the mediation process. What the litigants take into account concerns the timing of the process in all its degrees: the average duration of a civil procedure is seven years, whereas legal arbitration takes 240 days. Extremely different timings then between the two legal instruments – seven years for a judgment and eight months for an arbitration award exerting the same effects.
Which law governs international commercial contracts
Data reveal that after the first meeting between the two parties – once they put aside every diffidence and familiarise with arbitration – the percentage of agreements concluded with the assistance of a mediating attorney reaches levels of 50 to 65% of all cases, depending on the different legal subjects. Extending arbitration processes means being able to access a more efficient, rapid, credible and highly-skilled justice system. Legal certainty, moreover, allows operators to run commercial transactions in safety and with complete peace of mind.
The value of international mediation. What law applies to a contract
When it comes to international trade, mediation holds great value as a commercial disputes resolution method. Within the arbitration, parties request a third person to assist them with resolving the controversy by amicable means. Moreover, mediation is increasingly used in national and international trade practice as an alternative to judicial litigation, given how it safeguards commercial relations and avoids the States to incur substantial expenses for the administration of justice. In order for the procedure to be legitimate, recognisable and consistent, a great number of States have stipuated agreements and treaties based on the principle of the framework norm for international agreements resulting from non-adjudicative disputes resolution methods. A facilitator who does not take decisions but guides the parties towards a common satisfactory resolution, often clarifying communication issues, plays a pivotal role in the development of armonious international commercial and economic relations.
The process of ‘communitarization’ of private and procedural law
The principle applies to voluntary processes as well as ADR (alternative dispute resolution), making international civil and commercial mediation available for all those disputes that can involve the parties’ negotiating autonomy. But the armonisation and acceleration process of the law concerns judicial processes too.
Recognition of foreign judgments
The process of commuitarization of the law in the EU received a vigorous impulse after the approval of the Brussels Convention in 1968. The Convention introduced in signatory States, such as Italy, the principle of automatic recognition of foreign judgments without any further process. This principle was the final nail in the coffin of judicial nationalism, and paved the way to a ‘European jurisdiction’ that proved crucial to promote commercial relations among enterprises in Europe.
