One of the greatest challenges facing today’s major projects is how to effectively and fairly manage the dispute process. Over the past two decades, dispute resolution techniques including arbitration, review boards, mediation and partnering have been built into increasing numbers of construction contracts. The techniques do not have to be mutually exclusive, and they often are used in combination. Still, arbitration is the main alternative to litigation.
As megaprojects grow increasingly multinational, with stakeholders from all over the world working together, arbitration conducted under the rules promulgated by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has seen unprecedented growth. In 2016, for example, a total of 966 new cases were filed in the Americas involving 3,099 parties from 137 different countries. Of these cases, four out of every five were between parties from different countries, according to the ICC.