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LEGAL REPORT/ADR Playing with the big boys Proposed legislative changes would keep Canada in the major leagues of international arbitration and raise stock of all Canadian lawyers, say proponents. I f international arbitrators were ranked like boxers, Gerry Ghikas would likely be considered a world heavyweight contender. A commercial arbitration lawyer at Vancouver Arbitration Chambers and a former managing partner, head of litigation, and chairman of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP's international trade and arbitration group, he has served as sole arbitrator, co-arbitrator, or tribunal chairman in dozens of international commercial disputes over the past 35 years, some of them involving billions of dollars. Now Ghikas is preparing for a fight to fix the differences and inconsistencies that have slipped into the rules for international arbitration between Canada's 13 provinces and territories since 2006, when the country's model law on international commercial arbitration was last updated. At stake, he says, is Canada's reputation as an arbitration-friendly nation, the high regard for Canadian arbitrators in international legal circles, and an opportunity to raise the profile and hone the instincts and reflexes of all Canadian lawyers in regards to alternative dispute resolution strategies and clauses in today's fast-paced, free-trade world. The bout is set for Aug. 11 to 15 in Victoria, B.C., at a closed-door meeting of the civil section of the Uniform Law Conference of Canada, a national organization of public and private sector lawyers, judges, law professors, and law reformers who meet annually to recommend ways to modernize and harmonize federal, provincial, and territorial laws. As chairman of a ULCC working group that has been looking at ways to create consistent laws across Canada on a range of arbitration-related issues, Ghikas will present a half-dozen recommendations ranging from the power of arbitral tribunals to make ex parte orders to the appropriateness of having the same limitation periods in all jurisdictions across the country. "Canada has had relatively uniform arbitration laws since 1985 when it adopted the model law on international commercial arbitration," says Ghikis, "but there have been developments in www.CANADIAN L a w ye r m a g . c o m august 2013 51 tara hardy by Mark Cardwell