Our research
Our research
We facilitate and promote research across all aspects of commercial dispute resolution.
The research interests of members of the Group are broad, including recent projects or publications on:
- Conflict of laws in international commercial arbitration
- Hybridization of commercial court and commercial arbitration procedures in international commercial courts
- Recognition and enforcement of judgments against non-consenting parties by international commercial courts
- A Guide to the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules
- Australian Commercial Arbitration
- CISG Exclusion and Legal Efficiency
Recent publication
International and Australian Commercial Arbitration by Prof. Clyde Croft, Dr. Drossos Stamboulakis and Prof Marilyn Warren
Authoritative, analytical and comprehensive coverage of commercial arbitration law and practice.
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Our activities in 2021
The Commercial Disputes Group was established in early 2020. Its purpose is to provide a focus for teaching and research in all aspects of commercial dispute resolution – litigation in the courts, commercial arbitration, expert determination, disputes boards, mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution.
As a leading group of eight university within a major commercial centre such as Melbourne Monash Law has a significant opportunity to contribute teaching for students and practitioners and high level research in each of these areas. Monash University Law Chambers also provides the ideal location for student, professional and broader engagement with highly experienced and expert commercial lawyers: including judges, commercial arbitrators, senior barristers (QCs/SCs), mediators and academics. Though the COVID-19 pandemic has made progress more difficult, the Group is developing seminar programs and professional certificate courses as one way of harnessing this experience and expertise.
A major project undertaken during 2020 and 2021 has been to provide a well researched and developed materials base for teaching both post-graduate and undergraduate subjects in commercial arbitration. This project has been the research and writing of a book – International and Australian Commercial Arbitration – which to be published in early December by LexisNexis in its prestigious “Black and Silver” series.
The book examines, with reference to authorities and academic and practitioner writing, all aspects of commercial arbitration, both in terms of the existing law and legal thought. As a major work it goes well beyond an annotation of relevant legislation and international arbitral regimes and arbitral rules thereby providing a well researched and authoritative study of arbitral law and practice.
Additionally, its authorship – Professor Marilyn Warren AC QC, Professor Clyde Croft AM SC and Dr Drossos Stamboulakis – makes for an invaluable blend of comprehensively researched material informed by the high level judicial experience and perspective of former Victorian Chief Justice Warren and Justice Croft.
In parallel with this major research and writing project has been the development of a post-graduate unit – Issues in Transnational Dispute Resolution. The importance of international trade and associated dispute resolution options can hardly be overestimated for a trading nation such as Australia. This subject provides a high level study of commercial dispute resolution options and remedies available through the national courts and international commercial arbitration. Consideration is also given to the variety of remedies available and their enforceability as court judgments or arbitral awards internationally under the various international enforcement regimes.
In keeping with the importance of international dispute resolution, particularly in this region of the world, the Group is undertaking a program of research directed to the development of an Australian international commercial court. Professors Warren and Croft have written on and delivered conference papers on the need for developing such a court, both to meet particular needs for which a court is optimal and also to provide choice for parties in pursuing their disputes internationally. International commercial courts have been established in recent years in other major commercial centres in this region and also in Europe and the Middle East.
The involvement of the Group in teaching advocacy in an international commercial arbitration context is exemplified in its support for the Vis international mooting competition held in the early part of each year in Hong Kong (Vis Moot East) and Vienna (Vis Moot). Dr Drossos Stamboulakis leads and mentors the Monash Vis Moot team in the very extensive preparation involved in the competition, which involves both written and oral advocacy. Over many years each Monash Vis Moot team has performed exceptionally well in this global competition against the best universities in the world.
The Group also has other research and writing projects in commercial property areas, particularly commercial leases and mortgages and securities.