Azca, Business
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The legal framework, combined with
the caliber of the region’s professionals,
the superb infrastructure and the city’s location
all make Madrid an ideal venue for international
arbitration, particularly when the disputes to be
resolved have a Spanish or Latin American connection.
For some months now, Madrid’s
legal community has been somewhat restless. The
founding of the Spanish Arbitration Club by the
foremost experts in international arbitration just
over a year ago, has spurred on the support for
arbitration, which had already been simmering in
the region for several years.
Experts unanimously agree that Madrid
has all the qualities required to become a venue
for international commercial dispute resolution,
particularly where any of the parties hails from
a Latin American country or where the language of
one of the parties is Spanish.
Sharing a common language, a similar
legal tradition and the same culture are all forceful
arguments for the claim staked by Madrid.
In force since March 2004, the Spanish Arbitration
Law is a modern, flexible and non-formalistic piece
of legislation, taking the UNCITRAL Model Law on
Arbitration (1985) as its inspiration. Furthermore,
Spain is party to the New York Convention on the
Enforcement of Arbitral Awards, and the Spanish
judiciary has shown a positive attitude towards
arbitration ever since the Arbitration Law was enacted.
In comparison with other regions,
Madrid has a sizeable number of practitioners (over
40,000 bar association members), many of whom have
international training and experience, and this
has led to fierce competition over costs (which
are considerably lower, in fact, than those of other
countries such as Switzerland, France, the U.K.
or the U.S.). While this is by no means the most
important reason, it is true that competitive costs
are one of the reasons why some enterprises choose
Madrid as a venue for arbitration.
Madrid also has various arbitral
institutions with extensive experience in resolving
international disputes, of which the Court of the
Madrid Bar Association, the Spanish Arbitration
Court, the Arbitration Court of the Madrid Chamber
of Commerce and Industry, and the Civil and Mercantile
Arbitration Court are particularly worthy of note.
Besides this, Madrid is also the natural choice
of venue for arbitration by the most prestigious
international arbitral institutions, such as the
ICC or the AAA, among others, or for "ad hoc"
arbitration proceedings.
It is also of importance for the
parties involved in international arbitration that
the venue has good hotel accommodation on offer,
as Madrid does, and, in particular, that it has
good transportation links. Barajas airport is one
of the world’s leading airports and, above
all, offers some of the best flight connections
to the Americas. Furthermore, Madrid’s excellent
public transportation network (subway, railroad,
buses and taxis) provides an economical and efficient
way of traveling throughout the region.
Azca, Business
Center |
The regional government has given
its firm backing to Madrid’s strong bid to
become the businessman’s venue of choice for
dispute resolution. The decision to set aside a
specific venue for arbitration within the "City
of Justice" courthouse complex (an ambitious
project that will shortly provide Madrid with 14
buildings dedicated to the administration of justice,
spread out across a site of just over 50 acres and
designed by a team of internationally renowned architects
including Norman Foster) was one of the first measures
adopted. Other supporting initiatives in place focus
on the development of training programs for judges
and lawyers in the field of international arbitration
and on publicizing the venture in the press, as
well as developing a website on the subject.
Madrid’s recognition as a center
of arbitration for international disputes will yield
benefits for all sectors of the economy, and this
is why their commitment to the venture has been
wholehearted. According to Fernando Merry Del Val,
Minister for Economy and Technological Innovation
in the Madrid Regional Government, "Lawyers,
arbitrators and other professionals can reap the
rewards of attracting international arbitrations
to our region. What is more, other professionals,
such as translators and interpreters or workers
in the hospitality industry, will also benefit.
For this reason, we have given our unconditional
support to the promotion of Madrid as a venue for
international arbitration."
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