ESQ Legal Practice Magazine JUNE 2014 EDITION | Page 62

has been in use since very
early days when communities
utilize the rules of customary
arbitration in getting
respected elders in the
community to settle their
disputes rather than resort to
the Courts. The first
Arbitration statute in Nigeria
was the Arbitration Ordinance
of 1914 which later became
Chapter 13 of the Revised
laws of Nigeria, 1958. This
statute became the law of the
Regions and later the States.
Consequent upon the
development of commerce
and interrelationships with
foreigners and foreign
countries, the existing statute
was inadequate to cope with
the settlement of disputes with
foreign entrepreneurs.
The case stated procedure
under the 1958 statute which
allowed for counsel of either
party to the arbitration to state
a case for the opinion of the
High court judge was
regarded as unfair and
obnoxious to settlement of
commercial dispute particularly where one of the parties (
the foreign entrepreneur) was
not allowed to bring in foreign
counsel of his own choice and
where he understood very
little of the procedures of the
Nigerian courts.

commerce worldwide in the
early 20th century, and the
persistent discussion of the
new world economic order
with the United Nations
Organizations, the European
Union, the Organization of
African Unity, the Economic
Commission for Africa, the
Asian African Legal
Consultative Commission, the
clarion call to remove the
disparity in commerce was
heeded and Arbitration issues
was put on the agenda of the
General Assembly of the
United Nations. The matter
was referred to the United
Nations Commission on Trade
Law (UNCITRAL) a specialized commission of the United
Nations, created by the
General Assembly in 1966 in
order to harmonize and unify
international trade laws.

In order to understand the
importance of UNCITRAL in
the task referred to it, it is
worthwhile knowing that its
membership at the time was
limited to 36 states chosen
from among the United
Nations membership on a
regional basis in order to
assure that it was broadly
representative of the world's
principal legal, social and
economic systems. The
regional distribution of the
Commission as determined by
the General Assembly is –
This apparent inequality
Africa 9, Asia 7, Eastern
before the law encouraged
Europe 5, Latin America 6,
foreign entrepreneurs to
Western Europe and others 9, (
carefully, at the onset of the
the category described as
negotiation, provide for other
“others” included Australia,
methods of settlement of
Canada, New Zealand and the
dispute by arbitration under
United Stat \