Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) refers to any means of settling disputes outside the courtroom; it includes early neutral evaluation, negotiation, conciliation, mediation and arbitration.
Saving our clients the time and costs of litigation, we advice selecting ADR when it is possible. While the most two used forms of ADR are arbitration and mediation, we attempt first to resolve the dispute through negotiation between both disputed parties.
If negotiation did not take place or resolve the issue, our mediators are trained in negotiations and work on bringing opposing parties to the table and attempt to work out a settlement or agreement that both parties can accept. Arbitration would be the last option if none of the other methods worked.
Arbitration is often used for the resolution of commercial disputes, particularly when two parties from different countries or jurisdictions where laws differ especially when one country apply the common law and the other contracting party’s country applies civil law, in other words it is particularly used in the context of international commercial transactions.

The most important international instruments on arbitration are:
• 1958 New York convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards;
• The Geneva Protocol of 1923;
• The Geneva Convention of 1927;
• The European Convention of 1961;
• The Washington Convention of 1965 (governing settlement of international investment disputes);
• The Washington Convention (ICSID) of 1996 for investment arbitration;
• The UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration of 1985, (revised in 2006);
• The UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules (ad hoc arbitration)
• The Sri Lankan Arbitration Act of 1995.