Forging Ahead with Attitudinal Changes towards an Efficient Practice of Commercial Arbitration in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This study examines the question, of whether the pervading disappointment surrounding the practice of commercial arbitration in Sri Lanka, is due to the assimilation of court practices into commercial arbitration by the legal practitioners. Arbitration as an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) method to judicial processes was introduced with the enactment of Arbitration Act No.11 of 1995 and hailed as an effective ADR for the resolution of commercial disputes. Participants were ten senior legal practitioners involved in both court practice as well as commercial arbitration for more than ten years in Sri Lanka. The study used a phenomenological research design to explore the perspectives of ten participants. It was hypothesised that the legal practitioners involved in both court and commercial arbitration practice would have a deeper understanding of the disappointments surrounding commercial arbitration practice and why commercial arbitration has not yielded the anticipated result of efficiency in dispute resolution over court practice. The results indicated that the same practitioners in court and arbitration, bring the same attitudes and skill set practised in courts into commercial arbitration. Thus, the emerging theme is to create an attitudinal shift in the participants of commercial arbitration for the speedy resolution of disputes in comparison to formal court practice. Keywords: Commercial arbitration; Alternative Dispute Resolution; speedy resolution of disputes; attitudinal shift.