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Int’l arbitration to be convened in Guyana with new law – Attorney General
Kaieteur News – The Arbitration Act of Guyana is said to be the most modern piece of legislature of its kind, sporting flexible mechanisms that allow for international arbitration to be convened on Guyana’s soil.
Attorney General, Anil Nandlall
This was revealed by the Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall on the June 9th edition of the Energy Perspective Podcast. The AG said that the type of legislation Guyana has, is what other countries with arbitration centers have had for decades and ours is an improved version seeing that it was put in place taking their discrepancies into consideration. “They have the type of legislation that we have and they have had that for decades. In fact we have improved, ours is new but it has benefitted from whatever they have and they have had that for a long time. So we were able to look, see where there are deficiencies, and correct them in ours,” he said.
Nandlall explained that there are certain flexible mechanisms that the other countries do not have in their act which will allow for “any arbitration company or any company offering arbitration services can come and establish an office in Guyana, establish an arbitration center in Guyana and offer the service.”
He explained: “all that is needed to facilitate this is a building once you have the law and the most modern version of it, which is what Guyana currently has.” He noted that in his speech at Parliament he had mentioned the oil spill that took place in the Gulf of Mexico with British Petroleum, where the multi-billion dollar arbitration took place in Nassau Bahamas.
Nandlall questioned, “Why we can’t have an arbitration center if they can have one in Nassau? So we have as I said the most modern arbitration law and I hope that it makes Guyana self sufficient in terms of arbitration. At a vantage point where I sit almost every week I review contracts, multiple contracts huge contracts involving the government or state sectors and invariably they contain arbitration clauses.”
Nandlall disclosed that these clauses would take arbitration to New York, Washington DC, London, Paris and this is something he wants to change. Instead of listing a foreign location he wants to see Georgetown Guyana as the arbitration location. Hence, the government is building the framework and the “physical environment to accommodate and they will see so soon.”
He also explained that it is not only in the public sector contracts, there are similar provisions in the contracts that are being executed in the private sector.
“We would have heard in the public domain the possibility of the government and Exxon going to arbitration to settle a particular issue in relation to cost oil. Why should we take that to Paris, when we can bring Paris to Guyana? It is some human being in Paris doing this, I have the same law that Paris has, in fact I have a better version of it and if I bring those same expertise to Guyana, why we can’t do the arbitration here? I am bringing to Guyana millions of dollars, I am creating employment, I am bringing the business to Guyana,” Nandall said.
Since Guyana is the only English speaking territory in South America, if the country becomes an international arbitration hub, the AG believes that Guyana will be able to “attract arbitrations from Central America and South America because they all will go North. All of them are going, they are flying over us and going North.”
The Arbitration Bill 2023 was passed by the National Assembly of the 12th Parliament on Friday, May 17th marking a significant milestone in Guyana’s efforts to modernize its arbitration framework. The bill, presented by Nandlall aims to create a more attractive destination for arbitration in the region and beyond. According to Nandlall, the bill is designed to “update the legal architecture to accommodate Guyana’s rapid economic growth” and provide a fair and speedy resolution of disputes.
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