The University of the West Indies at Cave Hill now has an Alternative Dispute Resolution Unit (ADRU).
The unit was officially launched on Monday in the Moot Court Room during a ceremony which was attended by several of the region’s legal minds.
These included former Chief Justice Sir Marston Gibson, Dean of the Faculty of Law Professor Eddy Ventose, and Deputy Dean and Director of the unit Dr Antonius R. Hippolyte. Professor Velma Newton, Executive Director, Caribbean Law Institute Centre and Regional Project Director for the Improved Access to Justice in the Caribbean Project as well as Chief Executive Officer of the BVI International Arbitration Centre Shan Greer, were also in attendance.
In his remarks, Hippolyte underscored the importance of the unit considering the backlog of cases and how challenging it could be to conduct business in the region.
“The use of ADR is thus fundamental to reducing the number of cases which end up in court, thereby augmenting the efficiency of the judiciaries of regional countries by giving these courts the opportunity to reduce case backlogs currently plaguing them,” Hippolyte said. (TG)