On October 25, 2019, the lecture and presentation of the book "A Guide to the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration" (Roman Khodykin, Carol Mulcahy / Consultant editor – Nicholas Fletcher QC. – Oxford University Press, 2019) took place in the Library of the International and Comparative Law Research Center.
The lecture was given by Roman Khodykin – Partner at the London office of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, Ph. D, visiting professor at Queen Mary University of London, solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales, ICAC arbitrator.
The event was organized with the support of the Russian Arbitration Center, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, Oxford University Press, International and Comparative Law Research Center.
Anton Asoskov, who moderated the presentation and the discussion that followed, delivered an introduction, stressing the importance of fundamental research on this topic.
The IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration (the IBA Rules) are widely applied in international commercial arbitration. The Queen Mary University of London 2015 International Arbitration Survey has shown that over 77% of respondents from countries all over the globe were not only familiar with the IBA Rules, but have applied them in practice. The IBA Rules owe their widespread use to the fact that the rules of arbitral institutions usually contain no detailed regulations of the taking of evidence in the course of international arbitral proceedings. Despite a considerable interest the topic has for practitioners, scholarly research on it is very scarce, and the book presented is an attempt to close that gap.
During the presentation, Roman Khodykin spoke of the current regimes of taking of evidence in international arbitration, the advantages of the IBA Rules that facilitated their frequent use in practice, as well as of the problems that the parties that agreed to apply the IBA Rules in their arbitration may face.
Mr. Khodykin gave special attention to the differences between the IBA Rules and the recently adopted Rules on the Efficient Conduct of Proceedings in International Arbitration (the Prague Rules). These distinctions concern, in particular, the possibility of requests for written evidence, the status of witnesses, experts, representatives of the parties, and various types of privilege.
The lecture was followed by a Q&A session, where Roman Khodykin answered questions on how commonly the IBA Rules are used in Russia; how the application of the IBA Rules may affect the public order in a particular jurisdiction; as well as received thanks for presenting the Guide in Russia.
Roman Khodykin also presented a copy of the book to the Center's Library.
