KluwerArbitration Document information Publication Legitimacy: Myths, Realities, Challenges Bibliographic reference Ricardo Dalmaso Marques, 'Report on the Lunch Seminar Latin America: Hottest Issues, Country by Country', in Albert Jan van den Berg (ed), Legitimacy: Myths, Realities, Challenges, ICCA Congress Series, Volume 18 (© Kluwer Law International; Kluwer Law International 2015) pp. 913 - 931 Report on the Lunch Seminar Latin America: Hottest Issues, Country by Country Ricardo Dalmaso Marques Ricardo Dalmaso Marques (*) I Introduction: Why Latin America (AGAIN)? Few topics in international arbitration nowadays gather more interest than arbitral experiences had by practitioners in the most diverse regions of the globe. It is often especially interesting to hear and read about thrilling cases dealt with and superb challenges faced by arbitrators, counsel and clients in the most varied and peculiar parts of the world – triggering questions particularly with respect to those regions' legal orders, their local courts' attitudes and even these communities' views about foreign investment and international commercial relations. Notwithstanding, this curiosity about “good” and “bad” incidents can perhaps be considered even more understandable when we consider Latin America, a region intensely marked by a number of political, economic and legal turnarounds in the past decades. The practice of law in Latin America, regardless of the area or specialty, is particularly inspiring – possibly to the same extent that it is complex and delicate. The diverse legal and social realities that can be encountered in the Latin American region, notably, make the legal profession challenging in any of its countries, either from a domestic or an international perspective. Most of us certainly have heard in the recent past “how exciting it must be to be a Latin American lawyer at the present time”. These are perhaps some of the explanations for why the Lunch Seminar titled “Latin America: Hottest Issues, Country by Country” was one of the best-attended panels at the 2014 ICCA Congress in Miami – these, and the fact that six leading practitioners in the region were assigned the tricky duty, during the lunchtime of the first event day, of enlightening the audience on the most recent trends in Latin American investment and international commercial arbitration. As summarized below, the panelists were meticulous in depicting novelties in the arbitration legal framework, case law developments and expected trends for the coming years in and pertaining to ten Latin American countries, these being: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, and Peru. P 913 P 914 II Doak Bishop (Chair of the Panel): The Substantial Evolution of International Arbitration in Latin America in Terms of Legal Framework, Courts' Attitude and Counsel Expertise The chair of the panel, Doak Bishop, partner and co-chair of King & Spalding's international arbitration practice group in Houston, led the discussions by emphasizing the substantial evolution of arbitration that has distinguished Latin America, in his experience, in the past twenty-five years. Bishop made sure to remind the audience that many laws in the region have been written and rewritten over the past decades, reflecting a certain competition in this regard among Latin American countries. He also gave notable emphasis to the perceptible growth in the number of arbitral institutions, as well as to an increasing sophistication of the local courts in terms of acquaintance with and proficiency in international arbitration – also in dealing with the recognition of foreign arbitral awards. According to Bishop, however, the single most striking evolution seen in the past three decades in international arbitration in the region has been the growth of practitioners and of expertise in the “Latin American bar”. A reflection and examples of this development, he said, were the creation in 2010 of ALARB – Asociación Latinoamericana de Arbitraje (the Latin-American Arbitration Association), and the imminent establishment of ITAFOR – ITA Foro de Arbitraje Latinoamericano (ITA Latin-American Arbitration Forum), a primarily Spanish-Portuguese language “listserv” created to foster discussion on arbitration and ADR topics pertinent to Latin America. (1) (2) (3) P 914 P 915 III Jonathan C. Hamilton: The Mythical Legends of Latin American Investment Arbitration The first panelist, Jonathan Hamilton, partner and head of Latin American arbitration at White & Case LLP, based in Washington, D.C., and Mexico City, confronted “mythical 1 © 2019 Kluwer Law International, a Wolters Kluwer Company. All rights reserved.