'Statutory Difference: Why an Arbitration Act but no Adjudication Act?'

Date: Thursday, 21 Nov 2013, 18:30 Location: The Saïd Business School - Oxford, Park End Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 1HP Member cost: £90 (including VAT) Non-member cost: £114 (including VAT)

A joint meeting has been arranged between the Thames Valley Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Society of Construction Law

Thursday 21st November 2013 - 6.15pm for 6.30pm at The Said Business School, Park End St , Oxford OX1 1HP

The Honourable Mr Justice Ramsey speaking on the subject:

'Statutory Difference: Why an Arbitration Act but no Adjudication Act?'

When Adjudication was introduced by statute in 1996 it was a new means of dispute resolution. Whilst arbitration had by then been subject to a statutory regime for 300 years, there was no Adjudication Act to match the Arbitration Act. This has led to the process of adjudication being uncertain so that the courts have had to fill in the many gaps which were left by the 1996 Act but which are dealt with in the Arbitration Act 1996. At this meeting Mr Justice Ramsey will identify many aspects of the procedure which could have been covered by an Adjudication Act but which the courts have been left to resolve. These include commencement of adjudication, payment of adjudicators' fees, challenges to the adjudication process, correction of errors in adjudicator's decisions, enforcement of decisions and decisions as to costs. He will pose the question: has the process has been better served by the courts than by statutory intervention?

Sir Vivian Ramsey started his career as a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the ICE. After studying law he was called to the Bar and became a QC practising from Keating Chambers. He became head of those Chambers in 2003. He acted as counsel and arbitrator in numerous domestic and international arbitrations. He also practised as a mediator and an adjudicator as well as being an expert appointed by the ICC President. He is joint editor of Keating on Construction Contracts and also a Visiting Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Nottingham and a Visiting Professor at the Dickson Poon School of Law at King's College, London. In 2005 he was appointed as a High Court Judge in the Queen's Bench Division and in 2007 was appointed for three years as judge in charge of the Technology and Construction Court. He has recently been involved in the implementation of the Jackson Reforms in the civil courts.