About Us
A Word from the Chairman
As Chairman of the Portuguese Arbitration Association (APA), I welcome you to our new website.
Created in 2006, APA is the institutional expression of the Portuguese Arbitral Community, comprising about 250 members professionally and academically dedicated to arbitration, which the Association has as its mission to study, disseminate and promote.
The relevance of this extrajudicial form of settlement of disputes is undeniable today, both domestically and internationally. Arbitration contributes significantly to citizens' access to justice by facilitating it in situations – such as consumer disputes – where such access would often be more costly and difficult; it enables the prompt and fair settlement of disputes between companies by specialists chosen by the parties and in accordance with rules agreed by themselves; and it provides foreign investors and their host States with a neutral forum in respect of the interests at stake.
Being an indispensable component of the system of administration of justice – as recognized by the Portuguese Constitution – arbitration thus creates value for the economy and fosters its internationalization.
During the decade and a half that followed its creation, APA was responsible for very significant developments in the arbitration regime in force in Portugal. These include: the draft law that originated to the current Portuguese Voluntary Arbitration Law, which placed Portugal at the forefront of legislation on the topic; the Code of Ethics that binds all its associates, through which is an important form of self-regulation in this field; the Code of Best Practice for Experts in Arbitration; the regular publication of a specialized journal, Revista Internacional de Arbitragem e Conciliação, and an annotated version of the Voluntary Arbitration Law, now in its fifth edition; and the holding of a large number of conferences and other public initiatives, which have brought to Portugal renowned arbitration specialists from several parts of the world, thus seeking to strengthen the ties that link the Portuguese Arbitral Community to those of other countries.
In the exercise of its statutory purposes, APA pursues a policy of age and gender diversification, which is patent in the current composition of its Board of Directors and in the relevance of its group of under 40 members, which are today an essential component of the Association.
APA also seeks to decentralize its activities, by entrusting responsibilities inherent to specific matters to specialized Councils with broad autonomy in their respective areas of competence, in which all members of the Association may participate: the Council for Public Law Arbitration; the Council for Investment Arbitration; the Council for Deontology; the Council for Commercial Arbitration Practice; the Under-40 Council; the Corporate Arbitration Council; the Labour Arbitration Council; and the Sports Arbitration Council.
APA actively cooperates with other public and private organizations – notably Universities, the Judiciary, the Portuguese Bar Association and the main Portuguese institutionalized Arbitration Centres, with which it has carried out numerous joint initiatives – as well as with several of its foreign counterparts.
APA is open to the participation, as its members, of all individuals and entities with an interest in its statutory purposes, who are willing to contribute in that capacity to their achievement.
On this website, visitors will find the most relevant information about those purposes and the activities undertaken by the Association, as well as about its members.
Dário Moura Vicente
Members
At APA we are open to the participation, as members, of all natural and legal persons who are interested in our statutory purposes and we are willing to contribute, in that capacity, to its realization.