John Bassie becomes first Jamaican to head 115-y-o CIArb

John Bassie has taken over the reins of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) Global presidency for 2023. Bassie’s ascension to the top position of the CIArb, which was established in London, England, in 1915 and granted a Royal Charter in 1979, is significant since he is the first Jamaican to hold the position.

The investiture ceremony took place the Eon Nigel Council Room at The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, regional headquarters.

An attorney-at-law, mediator and accountant by training, Bassie is a director of the Jamaican Bar Association and chair of the Dispute Resolution Foundation and was founding chair of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Caribbean Branch.

“We are honoured to have John as our president at what is an exciting time for CIArb and for dispute resolution globally as it continues to develop and increase its influence in areas including sustainability and to adapt and change in line with technological advances,” Director General of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), Catherine Dixon, said in a message read by Regional Manager of CIArb, Bryan Branon.

In his acceptance speech, Bassie noted that as the world ascends from the spectre of the pandemic and efforts continue to regain a sense of normality, it is time to take stock of where he and his constituents as alternative dispute practitioners are coming from and where they are heading.

“As the world looks to find its footing and regularity, we have a unique opportunity to reflect on how our organisation can favourably impact lives. We can remember times when we had to encourage parties to try different ADR mechanisms such as restorative justice, arbitration, negotiation, conciliation and mediation,” he recalled. “We are now able to practise our craft in a timely, efficient and cost-effective way that if we can tabulate and learn our lessons properly from the last three years, we can find ourselves on the threshold of contributing to the resolution of disputes by the use of non-costly, non-traditional adversarial mechanisms.”

VISION

Bassie shared his vision for a more surgically organised and systematic approach to harnessing the alternative dispute resolution power that exists through mediation and combination type ADR services such as med/arb (A dispute resolution process that combines mediation and arbitration).

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) refers to any method of resolving disputes without litigation such as mediation, arbitration, conciliation, negotiation, and transaction. These are all processes and techniques of conflict resolution that occur outside of any governmental authority.

All ADR methods have common characteristics – enabling the parties to find admissible solutions to their conflicts outside of traditional legal/court proceedings but are governed by different rules. For instance, in negotiation there is no third party who intervenes to help the parties reach an agreement, unlike in mediation and conciliation, where the purpose of the third party is to promote an amicable agreement between the parties. In arbitration, the third party (an arbitrator or several arbitrators) will play an important role as it will render an arbitration award that will be binding on the parties. In comparison, in conciliation and mediation, the third party does not impose any binding decision. The main advantages of ADR are rapidity, confidentiality and flexibility.

Given the myriad of significant challenges the world is facing today such as climate change, cost of living concerns, conflict and unrest arbitration, mediation and all other forms of alternative dispute resolution can play a crucial role in supporting sustainability in the future.

CIArb is a global membership and professional body dedicated to effective dispute resolution with worldwide membership of 17,500 in over 150 jurisdictions.

“Our vision is a world where disputes are resolved promptly, effectively and creatively,” Dixon said.