Manuel Fernandez and Louis-Guillaume Roldan examine how Luxembourg’s particular characteristics might give rise to increased contention.
Luxembourg is no different from other jurisdictions: traditional litigation before courts is the ultimate recourse when a dispute arises, and is often used as a threat. But in reality, it is not the only dispute resolution method.
First and most obviously, parties to a dispute may discuss, with or without lawyers, and reach a settlement. The Luxembourg Civil Code provides a well-established regime where a settlement agreement, if validly entered into in written form, has the same value as a final court decision on the matters contained therein (article 2052).
Second, mediation is growing in popularity as a method for the resolution of disputes. Even though the financial sector is not necessarily the sector of choice for mediation, this method could be used more often. The Luxembourg New Code of Civil Procedure provides a precise and useful regime for mediation, whereby a mediation may be initiated by the parties, proposed by the judge or ordered by a judge at the request of the parties (article 1251-2). The know-how and professionalism of the Luxembourg financial players can make mediation a particularly efficient tool that has received increased scrutiny over the past years.
This article was originally published in the CDR Magazine published by: Global Legal Group and is available for download as a PDF file and on the the CDR website.
