Steffen Pedersen – International arbitration as a craft

Recently, UNUM Transport Arbitration and Mediation welcomed Steffen Pedersen to its list of available arbitrators. Pedersen is a distinguished international maritime lawyer and arbitrator with over twenty years of experience. Having an inquiring mind, he considers himself a keen and lifelong scholar of maritime law and the global shipping industry. You can read more about his views on international arbitration as a craft below.

Pedersen was born in Denmark, grew up in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, and worked his entire career as a lawyer in east Asia. He is qualified in Hong Kong and England and Wales, as well as Nauru. His family currently, resides in New York, where he spends a lot of time, but Pedersen works locally out of London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai through ArbDB Chambers. This international life has enabled him to acquire extensive first-hand experience and understanding of international business, including how cultural differences impact ways of doing business and how to bridge them — a huge advantage for conducting alternative dispute resolution in the maritime industry which is itself the quintessential international industry.

Challenging the status quo

Firm in the belief that competition is a fundamental positive, Pedersen is an advocate of international arbitration and sees the proliferation of offerings to the market in this respect as something to be embraced. Only by challenging the ‘status quo’ can you find new ways of conducting business and test them out to see if they work. This is the mantra of free enterprise.

This applies equally to arbitration: the more international arbitration becomes, the better processes can be tested and refined, and the more arbitration as a profession can progress, ultimately leading to better outcomes that serve international maritime business in general.

The maritime industry is the most international industry in the world, and dispute resolution offerings need to work for the benefit of players in that industry. What we see now with the world de-globalising brings about potentially immense challenges but the international maritime arbitration system is well-equipped to cope with such challenges: for example, the New York Convention is still in force in most countries. It has coped with geopolitical changes before regularly and no doubt it will adapt here too. More importantly there seems to be an increased interest in practicing maritime arbitration law amongst foreign lawyers and there are more and more foreign centres offering maritime arbitration coming to the forefront.

Looking beyond traditional approaches

Pedersen also explains that English law is the go-to option for the international maritime world when contracting. This has naturally allowed London to develop to be the world leader and the go-to place to conduct maritime arbitrations. It has been for many years, and continues to be, the gold standard for international maritime arbitration and has its own system and way of doing things. However, more and more often, that system is facing competition from other arbitration centres. This is not a bad thing for the maritime industry, nor for London. The annual case figures show that London has not suffered as a result, but what it does mean is that the practice of maritime arbitration is likely slowly changing with more people being involved in the conversation.

Pedersen continues: ‘One trend is that more and more non-English lawyers and arbitrators are involved in maritime arbitration. This is a fundamentally positive development as it is becoming more internationalised, and everyone is becoming a part of it, ensuring a much more international conversation. The more diversity the better. I really think the maritime world is moving slowly beyond traditional approaches.’ Accordingly, Pedersen believes that some parties might not automatically choose London anymore. This is not a bad thing for anyone, London included as stated above. The competition will only focus minds and drive better more efficient offerings.

‘At the same time other systems such as UNUM have great potential’, Pedersen continues. Besides being able to tap into a broad maritime knowledge base and experience within UNUM, the Netherlands is ideally located and has a high-quality legal infrastructure, adding to efficiency and enhancing the process in general. Whether it can or will deliver a true competition to London remains to be seen but the mere fact that it is an option is a good thing. There is no reason why someone looking for a taste of something else than London should not try UNUM, and especially so if their case involves a governing law other than English law.

Steffen Pedersen

Before becoming an independent arbitrator, Pedersen spent 17 years working as a maritime lawyer in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore. He has been appointed as arbitrator nearly 200 times under various rule systems, including those of the London Maritime Arbitrators Association (LMAA), Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration (SCMA), Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) and Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC), Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC). His main areas of expertise are the fields of shipbuilding, charter parties, cargo disputes and commodity disputes. He has drafted 39 awards to date.