Queens Law Reports 2018

SCHOOL NEWS

The “black box” of international commercial arbitration might be giving up some of its secrets soon, and Queen’s Law professor Joshua Karton will be part of the team getting a peek inside.

Arbitration is an increasingly important means for resolving crossborder commercial disputes, but most international arbitral tribunals keep their decisions confidential. Even the mere existence of a dispute is usually secret; hence, the “black box” analogy many insiders use: “A dispute goes in, a decision comes out, and no one really knows what happens in between,” observes Karton, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research, a specialist in international commercial law and dispute resolution, and author of a 2013 book about the international arbitration field.

Karton is the only North American on the 10-member international research team – lawyers, sociologists and psychologists – awarded a grant worth £1.1 million over five years from

GREG BLACK

Karton part of unprecedented £1.1-million European arbitration study

Associate Dean (Graduate Studies and Research) Joshua Karton dynamics, and the social networks that the U.K. Economic and Social Research shape the delivery of commercial justice Council. Their study, unprecedented in Europe. As Karton points out, grants in size and scope, will involve 400 of this size are rare in legal research, on-location interviews and focus groups and international arbitration researchers in 130 cities to determine how European may not get one like it again for a long arbitrators actually make decisions in time. “I’m excited to do such groundcross-border commercial disputes, breaking work on an important but accounting for the impact of arbitrator poorly understood field.” diversity, market incentives, intra-tribunal — JENNA RUMEO

$250K support from LFO

Bala innovations to help self-represented family litigants

2 QUEEN’S LAW REPORTS

will take primary responsibility for their case. For the lawyers who become involved, education, precedents, and a website searchable by location and service types will be provided. Simcoe County gets the first pilot project in June.

Expansion across Ontario starts in the fall.

To improve delivery modes, Bala is

involved in researching the experiences of judges, lawyers and other professionals, as well as family clients.

Bala reports: “I’ll be involving student researchers in the project, and I already address issues of self-represented litigants and unbundling in my family law courses.”

— KEN CUTHBERTSON

GREG BLACK

Professor Nick Bala, Law’77, a renowned expert on children and families in Canada’s justice system, has a major role in a project tagged “Limited Scope Family Law Services” that recently received a three-year grant of $250,000 from the Law Foundation of Ontario (LFO).

The twin goals: increase the Family Bar’s capacity to provide “unbundled” services and stimulate demand by publicizing their value and availability.

There have been dramatic increases in family litigants appearing in court unrepresented, often for financial reasons. This creates huge challenges for the justice system while jeopardizing the rights, safety, and interests of everyone lacking representation or proper legal advice. “‘Unbundling’ is one of the innovations needed,” says Bala, “and not just in family law.”

This project will facilitate separated parties’ access to legal advice and representation for critical parts of the legal process. Lawyers may be involved on just one occasion or may have an ongoing coaching relationship with a client who

Professor Nick Bala, Law’77