Africa-Press – Angola. The lawyer can appear with different “hats” in arbitration, acting either as a legal expert or as secretary of the Arbitral Tribunal. The position was defended by Maria América dos Santos, at the end of the webinar (training via the Web) on “The role of lawyers in arbitration”.
Maria América dos Santos was one of the main speakers at the Webinar organized by the Training Center of the Angolan Bar Association, in partnership with the Internationalization Commission of the Arbitration Center of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Sofia Vale, another speaker, explained that anyone who acts as an arbitrator must be impartial and independent, both when accepting their nomination and throughout the arbitration process, until the final arbitral award is issued. Sofia Vale said, Friday, that the arbitrator (unlike the lawyer) is not a representative of the party that appointed him, which is why he must disclose conflicts of interest that may create doubts in the parties about his independence and impartiality, in order to build trust between the parties involved in the process.
This webinar, which was attended by around 540 arbitration specialists, was moderated by Helena Prata, who acts as an arbitration lawyer.
Judgment of the Constitutional
The intervention that raised the most questions from the participants was that of Lino Diamvutu, a university professor and arbitrator, who commented on the recent Judgment of the Constitutional Court No. international companies based in Angola.
For the expert, the solution found by the Constitutional Court that the parties can be represented in arbitration by anyone, even if this person is not a lawyer, is not the most appropriate.
Maria América Santos, Sofia Vale, Helena Prata and Lino Diamvutu were unanimous in indicating that the parties in an arbitration based in Angola can only be represented by lawyers.
Lino Diamvutu understands that the solution for the participation of foreign lawyers in internal and international arbitrations based in Angola stems from paragraph 1, article 10, of the Advocacy Law, which determines that “the establishment of correspondence and cooperation relations between lawyers registered with the Angolan Bar Association and foreign lawyers, under the terms of the said Law and the Statutes of the Angolan Bar Association.” Therefore, it is possible for foreign lawyers to participate in arbitrations based in Angola, provided that they do so in collaboration with Angolan lawyers, in the light of that regulation.
The intervention of the foreign lawyer is always secondary, and may only intervene upon request and to complement the Angolan correspondent. Correspondence and cooperation agreements must be deposited with the Angolan Bar Association, within a period of eight days, counted from the date of their signature.
The number of arbitrations in Angola has grown increasingly in recent years, and these are essentially ad hoc.
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