Blog 1 Erik & Jenna

Today, we were able to take a lot away from the presentations at the University of Vienna. Mag. Kopecky's presentation of international arbitration and dispute resolution was especially compelling. This post addresses the biggest take-aways we both had. The biggest challenge of arbitration and dispute resolution tends to be the clients you work with. It is important to know everything you can about the client, including their background, facts about the case, their prior activity. It can be difficult to lead a client to a successful resolution, communication is key for the client to understand the steps in the arbitration process, as well as the timeline and cost of the process. By utilizing proper communication, further issues can be avoided.
More issues can arise based on proper jurisdiction or lack thereof. Mag. Kopecky referred to an example with Russia and wind turbines. Depending on legislation, the jurisdiction you are operating under can either work for or against you. This is another area where issues can arise. It is critical to understand the issues at hand, and how the law can swing. Expanding on these differences, culture can also create issues in dispute resolution. When cultures differ and that difference is not completely understood, major barriers to finding a proper resolution that both parties can agree on and benefit from can be difficult.
With a high context culture such as China, doing business with low context cultures, such as Canada, a lot of meaning can be lost in translation. This is another example of how culture can play into upcoming issues in international business relations and dispute resolution.