NEWSLETTER-2019-metin

170 NEWSLETTER 2019 Witness Conferencing in International Arbitration* Att. Tilbe Birengel Introduction Witness conferencing is a means of taking evidence that is widely used in international arbitration practise. It is also applicable in court litigation in some jurisdictions 1 . Witness conferencing may be de- scribed as an evidence-taking process in which two or more witnesses give evidence concurrently before a tribunal 2 . Also called as witness confrontation, witness conferencing offers a wide range of forms and methods 3 . Pros and Cons of Witness Conferencing Witness conferencing has become a popular procedure due to the notable advantages it brings 4 . In comparison to consecutive examina- tion of witnesses, witness conferencing may be considered more effec- tive for taking evidence as it eases the tribunal’s work of comparing the diverging claims of the witnesses. It also offers the opportunity * Article of May 2019 1 The courts of Australia, Singapore, England and Wales may be regarded as ju- risdictions with witness conferencing methods that are used in court litigation: “Guidelines for Witness Conferencing in International Arbitration” (“the CIArb Guidelines”), The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators : April 2019, p. 13, for ac- cess: https://www.ciarb.org/news/ciarb-guidelines-on-witness-conferencing/. 2 Ballantyne, Jack : “ CIArb Releases Witness Conferencing Guidelines ”, Global Arbitration Review, 30 April 2019, for access: https://globalarbitrationreview. com/print_article/gar/article/1190766/ciarb-releases-witness-conferencing- guidelines?print=true; The CIArb Guidelines, p. 13. 3 For instance, witness conferencing may be led by the tribunal, the witnesses, themselves, and/or by counsel. 4 Yuen, Peter/ Townsend, Matthew : “ New CIArb Guidelines on Witness Confer- encing, ” Kluwer Arbitration Blog, 25 April 2019, for access: http://arbitration- blog.kluwerarbitration.com/2019/04/25/new-ciarb-guidelines-on-witness-con- ferencing/.