On Thursday 12 January at 11.00h, David Baragwanath, HUGO Fellow 2011/12, will hold a seminar about the legal uncertainties in present day international financing transactions.
Burgeoning demands of modern commerce require ever more sophisticated financial instruments to meet them. Since vast sums are at stake, and both the time value of money and the need to know one’s position are crucial to the contracting parties, the inevitable disputes need to be resolved not only justly but rapidly. Yet those of us with experience as judges of state courts know we have neither the expertise in such matters nor the time needed to acquire it. Much the same may be said of arbitrators. The result is an immense black hole of legal uncertainty. The present topic is: what is to be done about it?
In this seminar David Baragwanath will elaborate on this question. He will describe the foundation of the Dutch Stichting P.R.I.M.E. Finance, based in The Hague, and his NIAS project to identify what types of case PRIME should accept and how it should deal with them. It is a precursor of a further address, to be delivered to the annual general meeting of PRIME (on January 16th) which will launch the project.