Book launch and panel discussion organized by Court of Conciliation and Arbitration within the OSCE highlights conciliation as flexible method for settling disputes

Conciliation as a flexible method for the peaceful settlement of disputes was the focus of a webinar held on 13 November 2020, and the launch of the book, Flexibility in International Dispute Settlement – Conciliation Revisited, which was edited by Christian Tomuschat (former President of the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration within the OSCE and Member of the Court’s current Bureau) and Marcelo Kohen (Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva).

The event was organized by the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration within the OSCE, in collaboration with the Graduate Institute in Geneva.

“The aim of this event is simple: to demonstrate that this Court constitutes a hidden treasure whose advantages should finally be acknowledged,” said Tomuschat in his opening remarks.

He mentioned conciliation being at the crossroad of judicial tradition and diplomacy. “Conciliation does not aim at ensuring legal perfectionism; it looks rather for a pragmatic solution within a legal framework. From this perspective, conciliators should embody at the same time the qualities of a judge and a politician, personalities who are able to look beyond the legal horizon without, however, yielding to the pressure of the relevant facts.”

The launch of the book, Flexibility in International Dispute Settlement – Conciliation Revisited, which draws on materials from a symposium held in October 2018 in Geneva, was followed by a panel discussion that explored different experiences and possibilities of conciliation in inter-state disputes.

Kohen said that conciliation was still largely unknown even among jurists and he asked about the collective responsibility in the different roles that actors played, be in the academic and diplomatic world, or as members of jurisdictional bodies, to fill the knowledge gap.

Speakers of the panel discussion included Emmanuel Decaux, current President of the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration within the OSCE, Professor emeritus, University of Paris II, Panthéon-Assas; Marc Bossuyt, President emeritus, Constitutional Court of Belgium Professor emeritus, University of Antwerp, Member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; Marie Jacobsson, Ambassador, Principal Legal Adviser on International Law, Sweden’s Foreign Ministry; Guido Raimondi, President of the Social Chamber, Court of Cassation, Italy, Former President of the European Court of Human Rights; and Hélène Ruiz Fabri, Director of the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law.

The Court of Conciliation and Arbitration within the OSCE, which is based in Geneva, provides a set of mechanisms for the peaceful settlement of disputes between States. The Court was established by the Convention of Stockholm which entered into force on 5 December 1994. To date, 34 States have ratified the Convention.