Chamber promotes the Seminar “Arbitration and the Public Administration – Legal, Contract and Procedural Aspects” in Recife
Jul 31, 2018
On July 31, 2018, the Chamber Ciesp/Fiesp promoted in Recife the Seminar “Arbitration and the Public Administration – Legal, Contract and Procedural Aspects” in partnership with the Superior Lawyer’s College of the Pernambuco Section of the Brazilian Bar (ESA/PE) association and the Brazilian Arbitration Committee (CBAr).
Welcome remarks were delivered by Mário Guimarães (ESA/PE), Soraya Nunes (regional coordinator of CBAr) and Luís Peretti (Secretary-General of the Chamber Ciesp/Fiesp), describing the work carried out by each institution in the promotion of arbitration as a tool devised for the efficient management of administrative contracts, and anticipating some of the main issues at stake.
The first panel analyzed the issue of “Special Procedural Prerogatives of Government Bodies in Arbitration”. Chaired by Carlos Eduardo Vasconcelos (Mediator and Attorney at Recife) and composed by Leonardo Carneiro da Cunha (Attorney of the State), João Luiz Lessa Neto (Lawyer at Recife and São Paulo) and Luiz Henrique Diniz (Federal Attorney). Leonardo Carneiro da Cunha distinguished between the permanent prerogatives of the government while acting before the court and in arbitration and those that derive from structural difficulties. The former derive from issues of substantive law, such as the presumption of validity of the administrative acts; the latter (such as extensions of deadlines) tend to disappear as the state attorney’s office becomes increasingly better equipped. João Lessa outlined the particulars of arbitrations involving the public administration, especially in view of the statutes enacted by Brazilian states in the matter, such as Pernambuco’s State Law 1,627 of 2015, which regulates such cases. Luiz Henrique Diniz discussed the different realities that exist in the realm of the federal attorney’s office, which acts as counsel for the Federal Union and over a hundred public bodies, and analyzed the expectations insofar as the procedural prerogatives of the government are concerned.
The second panel dealt with “Private Procedure and Public Law – when the Public Administration agrees to arbitrate” and was chaired by Isabela Lessa Ribeiro (Attorney at Recife). Cesar Pereira (Attorney at São Paulo) analyzed the legal framework applicable to the reference to arbitration of disputes relating to the public administration. He began with the broad concept of arbitrability, passing by the applicable regulations to the particular sector, by the scope of the agreement to arbitrate and concludes with the subject-matter of the procedure, shedding light into the situation of the public agents who bind the administration to arbitration agreements and about the perspective of the Federal Accounts’ Tribunal. Clávio Valença inquired into the potential effects of corruption cases to arbitration, explaining international precedents on the matter and emphasizing the strong position taken by some arbitration tribunals as a way to oppose corruption also in the realm of arbitration.
After the event promoted by the Chamber on May 23, 2018, in Buenos Aires about the same topic, this event contributed to the debate regarding arbitration in the public sector and marked once again the Chamber’s commitment to make efficient solutions available to the public administration in order to bolster efficiency and foreseeability in the management of its contractual disputes.
Voltar