April 2008: International Dispute Resolution Group launched at the Houses of Parliament

Note by Anthony Connerty on a reception at the Houses of Parliament to launch the IDR GROUP

The Director General of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Michael Forbes Smith, and Allan Connarty, the Managing Director of IDRS, were amongst the distinguished guests who attended a Reception held in the Houses of Parliament on 30 April to mark the launch of The IDR Group.

The Attorney General, Baroness Scotland of Ashtal QC, was the Guest Speaker at the Reception which was held in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Room in Westminster Hall: built in the 11th Century, Westminster Hall is the largest surviving part of the original Palace of Westminster.

Lord Anderson of Swansea introduced the Attorney General, stressing her links to the Commonwealth. Baroness Scotland then spoke of the importance of arbitration and alternative dispute resolution in international affairs. She welcomed the creation of the Group in a world where international trade was forever increasing.

Lord Anderson later introduced Anthony Connerty, a long-time member of the London Branch of the Chartered Institute, and a member of its Committee.

Connerty gave a brief description of the Group. He explained that the IDR Group is a small independent and self-administered group of international arbitration specialists. Its members are arbitrators, lawyers and other professionals from a number of countries in key locations worldwide: Africa, Bangladesh, China, Europe, the Middle East, Russia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. The experience of the Group reaches into the arena of inter- State disputes, with some members of the Group sitting as Judges and Arbitrators in the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, and in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg.

Members of the Group are also involved as arbitrators and lawyers in international commercial disputes conducted under the Rules of the main arbitration institutions in some of the world's major commercial centres, including Beijing, Cairo, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Stockholm, Vienna and Washington.

Connerty said that the experience of the Group's members reached beyond international dispute resolution into the areas of commerce and banking, and into the political and diplomatic fields. He also explained that the IDR Group contained a separate Panel of Consultants: university professors and other professionals who might not be in practice as lawyers or arbitrators, but who were experts in fields relevant to international dispute resolution. The Panel includes experts in areas such as petroleum, mining, metals, and international affairs.

Amongst the other guests at the Houses of Parliament reception were Commonwealth High Commissioners, partners in international law firms, and representatives of major organisations like the Corporation of London, the World Petroleum Council, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Dispute Resolution Centre, and UNCTAD, the Geneva-based United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Details of the Group can be see on its website: www.idrgroup.org