Expert calls for more regulation of ADR

An expert in Alternative Dispute Regulation (ADR) has called for regulation of the practice in Nigeria for greater standardization. The call was made on August 17 during the colloquium organized by the Association of Professional Negotiators and Mediators (APNM) in honour of ADR expert, late Prof Kevin Ndubuisi Nwosu, in Abuja. Speaking on the topic, […]

An expert in Alternative Dispute Regulation (ADR) has called for regulation of the practice in Nigeria for greater standardization.

The call was made on August 17 during the colloquium organized by the Association of Professional Negotiators and Mediators (APNM) in honour of ADR expert, late Prof Kevin Ndubuisi Nwosu, in Abuja.

Speaking on the topic, ‘The Twilight Years of ADR: A Call for Self-Regulation’, an ADR expert, Kehinde Aina, said self-regulation is fundamental to the survival of the field.

Aina quoted then Attorney General of Singapore (now Chief Justice) Sundrash Menon who said the ‘new age’ of arbitration is , in fact, its golden age, implying that the field stood on the brink of decline, and urged arbitrators to “embark on a course of collective self-reflection on what we could do better, and perhaps plant the seeds of change so that our industry will continue to play a critical role in the global administration of commercial justice.”

Menon then proposed that the self-regulating framework governing arbitrators should cover initial entry requirements, a competency certification system and practice standards for the conduct of arbitrators and also of international arbitration counsel, including a uniform global set of ethical standards and rules of professional conduct backed by a disciplinary process.

He envisaged arbitral institutions as being the functional equivalent of bar associations in this system, with a role in implementing the self-regulatory standards.

Aina also referred to the proposal by Professor Rogers for an International Arbitrator Information Project (IAIP), a non-profit organisation to help correct the “gumshoe clue-hunting approach employed to select international arbitrators” which is “severely outdated and unduly expensive in an era of information and technological efficiency.”

He therefore suggested that ADR provider organisations, law firms and individual ADR practitioners can share funding with leading institutions and secure momentum.

He said the only way to honour Prof Nwosu, who initiated various ADR programmes such as APNM, Settlement House, Peace Education and Peer Mediation Programme in Schools, Dispute Resolution in the Palace, Clergy Capacity Building on Dispute Resolution, Electronic Teaching Aids/Local ADR Drama, Vision 2020 Program on Dispute Resolution (V2020PDR) among others, is to sanitise the industry.

Prof Nwosu died on August 17, 2015 during the National Security Summit in Abuja. He was aged 49 years. The colloquium: ‘Kevin Ndubuisi Nwosu 1966-2015: A Quintessential ADR Practitioner’, was put together by friends and colleagues among whom are the chairperson of the board of APNM, Mrs Zainab Ibrahim Bio and a traditional ruler, Dr Dorncklaimz Enamhe.