• As Stakeholders React To Proposed Alternative Dispute Resolution Bill
TO strengthen the administration of justice in the country, the Bar and the Bench need to collaborate in many ways, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Justice Ibrahim N. Auta has said.
Justice Auta expressed this view when he hosted the Nigerian Bar Association-Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL) in his Abuja office.
The lawyers were in his office to intimate him with its upcoming conference slated to hold from June 17 to 19, 2013 in Lagos.
He said, "it is good for the bar and the bench to collaborate for better understanding of the law, sometimes mistakes are made because of inadequate understanding of the law. This interaction will be better for the justice system, because it will enable two to understand each other."
He promised that the Federal High Court would participate in the conference because it is relevant in the scheme of the collaboration.
According to Dr. Gbolahan Elias, Chairman, Conference, Organising Committee, the conference requires the participation of the Federal High Court judges because most of the business cases handled by lawyers in this section end up at the Federal High Court.
The General Secretary of NBA – SBL, Mr. Olu Akpata informed that the association visited the National Judicial Institute (NJI), Abuja because of its roles in legal education.
In a related development legal luminaries and other stakeholders in arbitration have reacted to the attempted incursion into private rights and reported attempt to deplete the resources of the public treasury by the National Assembly.
Speaking at stakeholders' meeting organised to discuss the proposed National Alternative Dispute Resolution Regulatory Commission Bill at City Hall, Onikan, Lagos, Chairman, Nigeria Bar Association on Business Law, Olasupo Shasore, described the purposed bill as wasteful and inappropriate.
He revealed that it would establish a Federal Commission and State Commissions in 36 States of the Federation, stating that the cost of the new agencies is estimated be about N22 billion, which falls at a time when Nigerians are experiencing the dire economic strains.
"It is most insensitive and unwarranted to charge the public revenue with a needless regulator for a practice that needs no regulation. This bill if passed will compel the executive to undesired policy and unplanned expenditure," Shasore added.
The former Attorney General also informed that party autonomy remains an essential and distinctive feature of all Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process, noting that when parties choose any form of ADR, they are confident that they would be submitting their dispute to a fair and an impartial person or body of their choice.
He, however, informed that regulations and requirements for certain qualifications are antithetical to this concept and that the establishment of an agency such as the proposed Commission would drastically erode the rights of the parties to choose the persons whom they feel would be most suited to resolved their dispute.
Other legal luminaries, which included President, Maritime Arbitrators Association of Nigeria, Gbola Akinola; Director, Lagos Multidoor Courthouse, Mrs. Caroline Etuk; representative of Institute of Arbitrators (UK) Abuja, Mr. Yanta Yusaf Ali; Vice Chairman, NBA-SBL Committee on Arbitration and ADR at the meeting said the National Assembly does not posses the legislative competence to enact the bill, especially as ADR is not a professional occupation within the meaning of item 49 of the constitution.
The Guardian