Ethics Council

The Ethics Council was created, by means of the bylaws, when APA was created and started its activity, under the presidency of the Chairman of the Portuguese Bar Association António Pires de Lima, on 10 December 2006. The Council is presided by Agostinho Pereira de Miranda since 2008. The main goal of the Ethics Council consists in discussing, preparing and disclosing the best practices in respect of rules of conduct applicable to arbitrators and other parties in arbitration proceedings. 

The Council developed the Code of Conduct for the Arbitrator, which was approved by the General Assembly on 12 May 2010. Following the entry into force of the new Portuguese Law on Voluntary Arbitration, the Council prepared a new version of the said Code of Conduct, which was approved by the General Assembly on 11 April 2014. More recently, in 2020, the Council promoted the approval of a new Code of Ethics, which extents to party representatives in arbitral proceedings the main principles of arbitration ethics, as well as a new Code of Best Practice for Experts in Arbitration.