UNIDROIT is working towards a soft harmonisation of civil procedural rules, by developing rules and principles that promote fairness, efficiency, and legal certainty in transnational disputes, while also providing guidance for domestic procedural law reforms.
The ALI/UNIDROIT Principles of Transnational Civil Procedure, adopted in 2004 by UNIDROIT and the American Law Institute (ALI) was the first instrument developed by the Institute in this area, which established common procedural standards applicable to transnational litigation. This was followed by the more detailed and regionality focused ELI-UNIDROIT Model European Rules of Civil Procedure, adopted in 2020 jointly with the European Law Institute (ELI). UNIDROIT’s current Work Programme features the project on Best Practices of Effective Enforcement, which is currently approaching finalisation.
The Procedural Law and Dispute Resolution Workstream (PLDR WS) focuses the assessing of the implementation of, and engagement with, existing instruments and ongoing projects, while also examing dispute resolution mechanisms embedded in other related UNIDROIT instruments. In parallel, the Workstream takes a forward-looking approach by identifying potential gaps and new areas in which UNIDROIT could further advance its contribution to the harmonisation of procedural law and dispute resolution.
The members are:
María Cecilia Fresnedo Herrera (Professor, University of the Republic, School of Law Montevideo),
Alexis Mourre (Founding Partner, Mourre, Chessa, Le Lay Arbitration),
Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell (Professor, University Carlos III, Madrid, and President of the European Law Institute),
John Sorabji (Professor, University College London),
Etsuko Sugiyama (Graduate School of Law Hitotsubashi University)
Rolf Stürner (Emeritus Professor, University of Freiburg and former co-reporter of the ALI/UNIDROIT Principles of Transnational Civil Procedure).
The first meeting introduced the objectives of the PLDR Workstream and discussed UNIDROIT’s Inception Report which provided a preliminary review of the Institute’s work in procedural law and dispute resolution. The Committee exchanged initial views on the proposed scope and structure of the future White Paper.
The second meeting was held in parallel sessions, and focused on the structure, methodology, and task allocation for the White Paper. The Committee discussed key cross-cutting issues and advanced planning for the drafting process.
The third meeting was devoted to the discussion of preliminary draft contributions submitted by Committee members, including ALI- Unidroit Principles on Transnational Civil Procedure; ELI- Unidroit Model European Rules of Civil Procedure; Best Practices for Effective Enforcement (Ongoing); Internal Coherence among Unidroit Instruments; Technology and Procedural Innovation; Litigation Financing and Access to Justice; and other related areas. The Committee provided feedback and discussed next steps for further drafting and consolidation.
The fourth meeting was held in parallel sessions and focused on reviewing progress and coordinating the drafting of the White Paper. The Committee discussed the status of key sections, including regional harmonisation of procedural law, technology and procedural innovation, and the coherence of UNIDROIT instruments, and considered how to streamline, consolidate, and structure the draft in view of its finalisation.
Diane P. Wood is the Director of The American Law Institute and a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School, where she teaches in the areas of federal civil procedure, antitrust law, and international trade and business. Previously she served on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, serving as Chief Judge from 2013 to 2020.
Prior to her appointment, she was the Harold J. and Marion F. Green Professor of International Legal Studies at the University of Chicago Law School, the first woman to hold a named chair at the school. She also served for two years as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, with responsibility for the Division’s international, appellate, and legal policy matters.
Wood was elected to the ALI in 1990 and was elected to the Council in 2003. In 2023, she became Director of ALI. After law school, she clerked for Judge Irving L. Goldberg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Alexis Mourre, founding partner of Mourre Chessa Le Lay Arbitration – MCL Arbitration, has served as counsel, President of the Tribunal, Co-Arbitrator, Sole Arbitrator or Expert in more than 350 international arbitrations, both ad hoc and before most international arbitral
institutions (ICC, ICSID, LCIA, ICDR, SIAC, SCC, DIAC, VIAC, etc.).
He established his own arbitration practice in May 2015, after having founded Castaldi Mourre & Partners in 1996. Alexis has been a Court member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration for 12 years, first as Vice-President (2009-2015) and then as President (1 July 2015-30 June 2021). He was Vice President of the ICC Institute of World Business Law (2011-2015), co-chair of the IBA Arbitration Committee (2012-2013), LCIA Court member (2012-2015) and Council member of the Milan International Chamber of Arbitration (2006-2014).
He is the author of numerous books and publications in the field of International Business Law, Private International Law and Arbitration Law. He is founder and former editor in chief of Les Cahiers de l’Arbitrage – The Paris Journal of International Arbitration, a leading publication in the field of international arbitration.
Alexis is a member of a large number of scientific and professional institutions dedicated to Arbitration and Private International Law. He is the founder and former president of Paris Place d’Arbitrage/Paris the Home of International Arbitration. He is fluent in French, English, Italian and Spanish, and has a working knowledge of Portuguese.
Professor of Commercial Law, Carlos III University of Madrid. Currently, Sir Roy Goode Scholar at UNIDROIT, Rome, 2021-2022. Chair of Excellence 2017-2018 at University of Oxford (Uc3m- Santander Program), affiliated to Harris Manchester College. Previously Distinguished Visiting Professor and fellow of a number of Academic Institutions. Arbitrator of Madrid Court of Arbitration. Member of ELI (European Law Institute) Council and Executive Committee. Member of the Expert Group of the European Commission on Liability and New Technologies and member of the Expert Group of the European Observatory of Platform Economy; the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law; the expert group of the Inclusive Global Legal Innovation Platform for Online Dispute Resolution – UNCITRAL and Hong Kong Department of Justice. Expert of the UNIDROIT Study Group on the MAC Protocol of the Cape Town Convention on International Interests. Delegate of Spain to UNIDROIT for the adoption of the Protocol, delegate of Spain in Working Group VI of UNCITRAL on secured transactions and in Working Group IV on Electronic Commerce. Member of UNIDROIT Working Groups on Enforcement and Warehouse Receipts.
John Sorabji is an Associate Professor of Law at University College London. His expertise is in civil procedural law and alternative dispute resolution, and he is particularly interested in access to and the delivery of effective civil justice. He is co-founder and co-director of UCL Laws’ Centre for Dispute Resolution. Outside academia, he was previously Deputy Private Secretary to HM King Charles III and before that Principal Legal Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales and the Master of the Rolls, where he advised on constitutional issues and judicial governance.
John is a member of the Civil Justice Council of England and Wales. He has been a member of its Pre-Action Protocols Working Party and is a member of its standing committees on Data and Futures. He co-chaired the Working Party on Litigation Funding and was responsible for devising its recommendations and drafting its Interim and Final Reports. He is also a member of its AI Working Group and co-chair of the Civil Cases in the Magistrates’ Courts Working Party.
He has been a Visiting Professor at Université Panthéon-Assas and the University of Freiburg. He is a former member of the European Law Institute’s Executive Committee and Governing Council, and one of its founders. He has acted as an expert for the Venice Commission and has been appointed as an expert for the Council of Europe’s Consultative Council of European Judges, preparing Opinion No. 26 on the use of assistive technology by the judiciary. He has also provided advice to organisations including the Law Society of Nigeria and given expert evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Standards.
He is the author of English Civil Justice after Woolf and Jackson (2014) and A Model Code of Civil Procedure for England and Wales (2024). He is also General Editor of Civil Procedure (The White Book).
Etsuko Sugiyama is a Professor of Law at Faculty of Law, Graduate School of Law and School of Law at Hitotsubashi University in Japan.
Prof. Sugiyama specializes in civil procedural laws, civil execution laws, insolvency laws and alternative dispute resolutions(ADR). She started her academic career at the Graduate School of Law and Politics of the University of Tokyo as a research associate after obtaining a Bachelor of Law degree there. She also obtained a Master of Law degree at Yale Law School as a Fullbright scholar. She passed the bar exams both in Japan and New York State and is qualified as an attorney in New York State. She did research as a Visiting Scholar at Columbia Law School and the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge. Her current academic interests are in the introduction of Information Technologies (IT) and handling of digital assets in those civil proceedings.
Prof. Sugiyama is currently the director of Japan Association of the Law of Civil Procedure and Japan Association of the Law of Mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). She has been a member of various legislative councils for civil procedural laws and family law at the Ministry of Justice, and a member of the committee for telecommunications dispute resolution at the Ministry of International Affairs and Communications. She also represents the Government of Japan at Working Group V (Insolvency) of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).