Description

About the Seminar

Expert determination (ED) and Dispute Boards (DBs) are often used to resolve disputes or differences in a wide range of commercial contracts and industries, such as sale of goods, energy and natural resources, shipbuilding, construction, telecoms and intellectual property. ED is a process whereby parties agree to refer an issue, difference or dispute, arising from their contract, to be resolved by a third-party expert. DBs are a similar process typically used in construction and infrastructure projects, whereby contractual issues or disputes are entrusted to a ‘standing’ body during the life of a project. In contrast with international commercial arbitration and mediation supported by the New York Convention and the Singapore Convention on Mediation respectively, ED and DBs are not supported by an international convention that would require its Contracting States to recognise agreements on ED/DBs and enforce ED/DB decisions. In this seminar, Professor Saidov will argue that the time has come to debate the need for such an international regime. Imagining such a convention, this talk will explore what its scope of application should be and, based on comparative research across some leading common and civil law jurisdictions, what grounds of challenging ED and DB decisions this convention should provide for.

About the Speaker

Professor Djakhongir Saidov specialises in international commercial law. He is Professor of Commercial Law at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London, Consultant at Helmsman LLC, Advocates & Solicitors, Singapore, and, currently, a Visiting Professor at NUS Law, where he is also an Academic Fellow of the Centre for Maritime Law. Previously, he was based in the University of Birmingham, where he was Reader in Law (2013-2015), Senior Lecturer in Commercial Law (2009-2013) and Lecturer in Commercial Law (2004-2009). Professor Saidov holds PhD and LLM (with Distinction) degrees from the University of East Anglia and an LLB degree from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy (Uzbekistan). He has published extensively on various aspects of the law of sale of goods, remedies for breach of contract, the law of oil and gas, the law of expert determination and international commercial law instruments (including two monographs: The Law of Damages in International Sales – The CISG and Other International Instruments, 2nd edn (Oxford, Hard Publishing 2021); Conformity of Goods and Documents – The Vienna Sales Convention (Oxford, Hard Publishing 2015)). He was a Rapporteur to the CISG Advisory Council (CISG-AC) on its Opinion No 19 on ‘Standards and Conformity of the Goods under Article 35 CISG’ and, between 2009 and 2022, the Editor of the English Sale of Goods Law section in the Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly (LMCLQ) International Maritime and Commercial Law Yearbook.