Conciliation and Arbitration for Ecclesiastical Entities

A civil dispute resolution plan for ecclesiastical entities

The Launch Conference

May 10, 2017 at 4:00 p.m.
Piazza della Pilotta 4 (Rome)
Pontificia Università Gregoriana
Aula delle Tesi.

Program

• P. Yuji Sugawara, s.j. (Dean, College of Canonical Law, Pontificia Università Gregoriana).
• Welcome and introductions.
• Avv. Pierre Fortin (President, Dikaios International).
• Presentation of the project.
• Prof. Avv. Andrea Giardina (President AIA).
• Context for the arbiter’s independence and impartiality.
• Prof. Avv. Maria Beatrice Deli (Secretary General AIA).
• Operational elements for the AIA arbitration process.
• Prof. Cesare Mirabelli (Presiding Judge Emeritus of the Constitutional Court, President of the AIA Court).
• CAEE: An opportunity for the church and the state.
• Prof. Valerio Gigliotti (Università degli Studi di Torino).
• Equity and mediation in the Catholic Church: Legal-historical case studies.
• Prof. Ilaria Zuanazzi (Università degli Studi di Torino, Piedmont Region Ecclesiastical Court).
• Mediation and arbitration in canonical law.
• P. Marc Dessureault, o.m.i. (Bursar Generale, OMI Missionaries, Rome).
• Round table.
• Suor Maria Angela Agostoni (Sup. Gen. Emerita, Suore Marcelline Sisters, Milan).
• Round table.
• Ing. Vittorio Addis (President, Tecnohabitat S.p.A., Milan).
• Round table.
• Foreword

Gli enti ecclesiastici intrattengono relazioni economiche e giuridiche tra di loro, ma anche con le imprese e le persone fisiche, tanto per amministrare le proprie attività quotidiane di gestione quanto per perseguire i propri scopi religiosi e/o sociali. Le organizzazioni laiche ed ecclesiastiche, inoltre, si relazionano (in modi diversi) con la collettività, da cui ricevono istanze specifiche e a cui devono rispondere coerentemente con la propria missione.

Incomprensioni o imprevisti possono innescare conflitti in merito all’interpretazione o all’esecuzione dei contratti conclusi per disciplinare i rapporti civilistici che coinvolgono almeno un ente ecclesiastico, ripercuotendosi con effetti negativi sulle collettività coinvolte. Tali conflitti possono essere composti tramite la giustizia ordinaria oppure tramite strumenti alternativi (ADR, Alternative Dispute Resolutions), più adatti a tali fattispecie perché strutturati per contemplare le esigenze specifiche degli enti ecclesiastici, delle imprese e delle persone fisiche coinvolte in quei rapporti.

Gli enti ecclesiastici, le imprese e le persone fisiche, infatti, riscontrano alcune difficoltà tipiche nel gestire le controversie davanti all’autorità giudiziaria statale: la durata eccessiva dei processi, la specificità della natura dei soggetti coinvolti e del diritto applicabile, la tutela limitata della riservatezza finiscono per scoraggiare il ricorso al giudice ordinario.

Il Progetto di Conciliazione e Arbitrato per Enti Ecclesiastici (CAEE) nasce proprio dalla consapevolezza delle difficoltà sopra illustrate per iniziativa dell’Associazione Italiana per l’Arbitrato (AIA) e di Dikaios: due aggregatori di professionisti che comprendono l’importanza e la delicatezza della soluzione dei conflitti tra imprese ed enti ecclesiastici.

Il Progetto di Conciliazione e Arbitrato

Ecclesiastical entities and businesses are complex entities. Organized according to an internally devised structure that reflects their particular needs (with both parallel and overlapping functions), and which stretch across different jurisdictions (into civil jurisdictions in various countries, and in canonical law), these entities depend on the persons who take part in them (each with his or her own individual values and background).

These complex organizations require tools to simplify not just their operations, but the resolution of any disputes that may arise as well. After all, the consequences of their actions can reverberate across a broad swath of constituencies, from small towns to entire market segments. The persons involved in these legal relationships, furthermore, have needs and feelings that must be validated at the conflict-management stage as well.

The CAEE Project arises from that very need to facilitate individuals, businesses, and ecclesiastical entities in resolving civil disputes involving one or more ecclesiastical entities, by placing a neutral and secure space, as well as an efficient and confidential proceeding, at their disposal. In so doing, the dispute can be settled in a manner that embraces the opportunity to protect the relationship between the parties, and to see new value created from the resolution of their conflict.

AIA, as the institution that manages arbitration proceedings, and as appointing authority for mediators and arbiters, guarantees legal finality and confidentiality by appointing expert professionals who appreciate the special nature of relationships between the lay and ecclesiastical sectors.

Arbitration and mediation boards have been operating in the lay sector for quite some time. AIA has been establishing its presence in the field of commercial arbitration since the latter part of the 20th century. It has contributed to the development of arbitration and other alternative-dispute resolutions, and expanded their scope of application, especially in the current legal climate, to provide a way to handle the present crisis in our courts system. However, ADR techniques have yet to be applied to relationships between the lay and ecclesiastical spheres, to facilitate access to a conscientious and informed system of justice.

Dikaios regularly assists ecclesiastical and other nonprofit entities in managing their internal affairs (including disputes), and their relationships with the lay world.

AIA and Dikaios identified the first – and up until now, the only – Arbitration and Mediation project aimed at properly safeguarding the specific characteristics and interests of lay and ecclesiastical organizations, placing people at the heart of the process.

CAEE Project: Characteristics

The CAEE Project offers businesses and ecclesiastical entities an arbitration proceeding administered by an institution of clear renown. The project appoints experienced professionals cognizant of the needs and values that characterize interactions between lay and ecclesiastical organizations. A proceeding which, on the other hand, embraces the possibility of a preliminary attempt at mediation, aimed at settling the dispute through solutions proposed by the parties themselves.

Mediators and arbiters appointed by AIA who take part in CAEE are experts in civil and/or canonical law, as well as the characteristics of the ecclesiastical sector’s internal affairs, and the interactions between the lay and ecclesiastical spheres. These two “worlds,” albeit in special ways and to varying degrees, share interests and values that are assimilated into the Project.

CAEE requires that the arbiters appointed to a case have not only the expertise typically required of an arbiter, but that they further have a sensitivity towards the specific issues of the parties to the dispute, bearing in mind the businesses and the entities’ equity positions. Moreover, they will try, where possible, to preserve the contractual relationship presently in place, especially where broad-range interests of a community are implicated. The project also requires that the arbiters be amenable to the parties’ ability, over the course of the arbitration process, to find independent solutions (including through mediation) to their dispute.

This Project’s arbitration and mediation proceedings will be conducted in accordance with the 2016 AIA Arbitration Regulations (ordinary and documentary). These serve to safeguard privacy, impartiality, independence, professionalism, and competence of the arbiters, and to provide certainty on the costs of the proceedings. Arbiters and mediators involved in the proceeding may be appointed by the AIA Court of Arbitration (pursuant to Section 1.5 of the Regulations).

CAEE Advantages

Any person, business, or ecclesiastical entity choosing to resolve their disputes by participating in this Project may submit the controversy to the Court of Arbitration. The Court will then assess each case with a view to reaching a decision that respects the (either individual or shared) needs and values of those persons, businesses, and ecclesiastical entities.

CAEE is founded on adherence to the following:

Safeguarding parties’ rights.
Respecting fundamental ethics and values during the proceeding.
Arbiter competence, impartiality, and independence.
Support from the arbitration institution to the parties before and during the proceeding.
AIA’s oversight of the proceedings.
Speed in rendering a ruling.
Confidentiality and a duty of privacy from both the arbiters and the arbitration institute.
Cost-containment for the proceedings.
Assessment of the community impact of the conflict.
CAEE promotes transparency, streamlining, privacy, quality, and certainty of results in its ADR proceedings. These needs have been codified in the periodic updates to the AIA regulations.

The ADR culture itself, and the respect for fundamental values like those promoted by the Project will allow for increasingly clear and specific contracts between ecclesiastical entities and businesses. These will help avoid conflicts, or to resolve them in a successful and satisfactory manner, thanks to the inclusion of standard compromise clauses.

An Advisory Council made up of experts in arbitration and ecclesiastical entities is in the works. The Council will be tasked with overseeing the proper use of the arbitration/mediation tools in those specific disputes falling under the aegis of the CAEE.

Ask more informations writing at info@dikaios.international.