From June 24 to 30, the Department of International Law (DIL) of the Secretariat for Legal Affairs of the OAS participated in one of the most important arbitration events in the Caribbean region.

The Jamaica International Arbitration Center (JAIAC) hosted Arbitration Week 2018, with the theme “Arbitration on the Move: Framework, Industries and Economic Development." The event was characterized by a wide-ranging exchange of knowledge, experiences, and best practices among internationally recognized arbitrators, specialists, and academics, students, and others interested in international arbitration, from the public and private sectors of over 15 countries.

Topics addressed during the keynote lecture of the event included the framework for arbitration in the Caribbean region and the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, known as “the New York Convention”, and its impact on jurisprudence and economic development. Specialized panel discussions were also held on topics such as arbitration in sports and in the construction and maritime industries. The DIL gave a presentation on the Inter-American Convention on International Commercial Arbitration, known as “the Panama Convention” and signed in that country on January 30, 1975; its content, historic importance for the region, and current application.

The event also served as an opportunity to publicize the draft El Rol de la Judicatura en la Ejecutoriedad de Laudos Arbitrales Internacionales [The Role of the Judiciary in the Enforceability of International Arbitration Awards], which the DIL has been preparing for several years. The draft reviews the impact of judicial decisions on arbitration and the role of judges during the main phases of arbitration. The publication, and the events on which it was based, included opportunities for reflection, sharing of national developments in international commercial arbitration, and dialogue among the judiciary, its peers, internationally recognized specialists, academics, and arbitrators, and other strategic actors. Among the main subregional events organized within the framework of that project and described in the publication were those held in the United States (2013), Costa Rica (2013), Chile (2013), Uruguay (2014), and Saint Lucia (2014). The program achieved participation by over 100 Ministers, Supreme Court magistrates, and senior judges.

During the visit to Jamaica, on June 29, Dr. Dante Negro, Director of the DIL, was also invited to speak at the Faculty of Law of the University of Technology, Jamaica on the most recent legal developments in the inter-American system in the area of private international law. Dr. Negro’s presentation included topics on which the Department is currently working, such as secured transactions, electronic warehouse receipts for agricultural products, international contracts, the simplified corporation, and online arbitration in cross-border consumer transactions. As well, Dr. Negro outlined the relevance of the role of the OAS to the furtherance of international law in the Hemisphere.

Activities such as these are being carried out in the course of implementation of the Inter-American Program for the Development of International Law, adopted by the General Assembly of the Organization by resolution AG/RES. 2660 (XLI-O/11). The Program’s main aims are to promote the development and codification of international law in the framework of the OAS; promote the widest possible dissemination of the inter-American juridical system, especially the multilateral treaties adopted in the inter-American system; and to promote awareness of and cooperation for the development, dissemination, and teaching of international law in the Hemisphere.

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