Is Europe Skipping a Step? Exploring the Harmonization of Adr Agreements
| Published date | 01 December 2013 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1302000403 |
| Date | 01 December 2013 |
| Author | Maud Piers |
| Subject Matter | Article |
506 20 MJ 4 (2013)
IS EUROPE SKIPPING A STEP? EXPLORING THE
HARMONIZATION OF ADR AGREEMENTS
M P*
ABSTRACT
e EU has in the past 15 years displayed particular interest in Alternative Dispute
Resolution or ADR. It has issued a number of instruments that set out the procedural
framework within which the Member States have ample leeway to regulate ADR. One
aspect that has remained under the European radar is the ADR agreement. is article
explores how the EU could promote better access to justice by adopting uniform rules
on the legal status of an ADR agreement. To that end, it discusses the substantive legal
requirements that a valid and binding ADR agreement should meet. It also examines the
obligations of the parties to an ADR agreeme nt. Moreover, it confers how these obligations
might be enforced. While laying out rules that t the European legal context, this paper
draws on comparative research on ADR in Belgium, England and Germ any; on the rules of
established ADR institutions such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC); and
on Article13 of the UNCITRAL Model L aw on International Commercial Conciliation.
Keywords: ADR agreement; enforceability; European private law; parties’ obligations;
uniform law
§1. INTRODUC TION
e EU has in the past 15 years displayed particular interest in Alternative Dispute
Resolution or ADR. It has issued a number of instruments that primarily set out the
procedural framework within which the Member States have ample leeway to regulate
ADR. One aspect that has remained under the European radar is the ADR agreement.
* e author is a Professor of Eu ropean Private Law at t he University of Ghent (Belgium). She woul d like
to thank the colleagues of the Max Planck Institu t für Ausländisches und Inter nationales Privatrecht
with whom she discussed her resea rch throughout her stay there in 2012, and she expresses her
gratitude in pa rticular to Dr. Feli x Ste ek who provided the init ial impetus for th is research.
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