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GBA taken to task for not developing
ADR skills
Accra, March 10, Ghanadot/GNA- Nana Dr. S.K.B Asante, the
Chairman of the Ghana Arbitration Centre, on Monday made a
case for arbitration and took the Ghana Bar Association to
task for failing to develop alternative dispute resolution
skills.
Speaking at the opening of a three-day workshop on
alternative dispute resolution in Accra, Dr Asante said the
failure literally meant ceding a major part of modern legal
practice to foreign firms.
The Centre is organising the workshop for lawyers,
engineers, surveyors, business executives on the theme: "the
Importance of Acquiring Arbitration".
The purpose of the workshop is to expose participants to the
activities of the Centre.
Nana Asante said arbitration, which is part of dispute
settlement, was being promoted at the highest level of the
national legal system, with Ghana's Chief Justice Mrs
Theodora Wood being the foremost advocate.
He observed that legal practitioners could not afford to
ignore arbitration because of the congestion of cases at the
courts, and consequent slow pace of litigation.
Nana Asante gave pluses for arbitration for its cost
effectiveness and expeditious means of resolving commercial
disputes.
Also, it is also more favoured by investors and businessmen
in general.
The Arbitration Centre Chairman the realities of
"internationalization" of goods and services as well as
globalization underscored the importance of alternative
dispute resolution as inescapable for the implementation of
economic and social programmes
for African and other developing countries.
Thus, it has been a requirement for governments and private
parties involved in negotiating international business
transactions, loan agreements, industrial joint ventures
among others, to insist on appropriate dispute settlement
which was invariably international arbitration.
Mr Babatunde Fagbohunlu, a Legal Practitioner, said
arbitration was by consensus, or agreements to reach
mediation, negotiation and conciliation.
He explained that it subsequently had no coercive powers.
GNA
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