63 The CIArb Australia News 2019
L – R: Prof Graeme Samuel AC; The Hon Justice Peter Riordan, Supreme Court of Victoria; Leah Ratcliff, Global Disputes, Jones Day; Caroline Kenny QC, CIArb Australia President and The Hon Kenneth Hayne AC QC
2019 CIArb Australia Business Lunch When: 5 June 2019 Where: Vue de Monde, Melbourne
Welcome Remarks Your honours, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, as President of CIArb Australia, I am very pleased to welcome you to the 2019 CIArb Australia Business Lunch and to introduce our guest speaker, Leah Ratcliff. I am pleased to say that this lunch sold out within days of it being announced. I am grateful for the support of the various legal and government institutions, corporates, financial institutions and law firms who are here today from Victoria and interstate. I would like to particularly acknowledge the presence of current and former judges from the High Court, Supreme Court, Family Court, Federal Court, and County Court, Prof Graeme Samuel AC, former
Commissioner, The Hon Kenneth Hayne AC QC and former member of the Victorian Bar, ASIC Deputy Chair, Daniel Crennan QC. In addition, I would like to thank our sponsors, the Victorian Bar who is represented in these proceedings by Senior Vice President, Wendy Harris QC and Jones Day for supporting the lunch. I would also like to thank our CEO, Gianna Totaro, for her hardwork in organising today. Before introducing Leah, I wanted to briefly touch on a few developments and observations in international arbitration. As reported by Austrade in 2018, international commercial arbitration is a vital part of doing business in the global economy, and is effective in managing commercial relationships and risk. The past decade has seen an increase in
the use of arbitration, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. This is largely due to the significant growth of the Australian and Asian economies and their increased participation in global commerce. In March 2019, Australia and Indonesia signed the AustraliaIndonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and Australia and Hong Kong signed the Australia-Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement Both agreements provide for disputes to be resolved by arbitration. Arbitration, be it domestic or international, is increasingly the dispute resolution of choice across a range of different sectors. Of particular interest to our guests from the Family Court, Chief Justice William Alstergren and Justice Josh Wilson, Australia is leading other countries in the
