Shakespeare’s Tragedies as a Guide to Contract Based Dispute Resolution

Drilling Controls, Inc. an Aibel Group Ltd. company

Shakespeare’s Tragedies as a Guide to Contract Based Dispute Resolution

Thomas Fox-General Counsel, Drilling Controls, Inc.IQPC-Dispute Prevention and Resolution in International

Oil & GasLondon, UK July 9, 2008


Legal Disclaimer

The views stated herein

are solely those of the

author and are not those

of Drilling Controls, Inc.

or Aibel Group Ltd.


For Want of a Nail the Shoe was Lost For Want of a Shoe the Horse was Lost For Want of a Horse the Battle was Lost For Want of a Battle the Kingdom was Lost

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/photodraw/portraits/shakespeare.jpg

SOME TRADITIONAL DISPUTE RESOLUITION

MECHANISMS OVER THE YEARS Method Pros Cons

Dueling•out of fashion •might get killed

•If held at done at dawn will not interfere with the work day

Coin Toss• arbitrary •cheap

•simple •a penny will do

War•might get killed •world might end •determines not who is right but who is left

•good for business

•great stories for grandchildren

Bare Fists•might need cosmetic surgery •dry-cleaning bill for blood on shirt

•good exercise

•cheap

ADR•used to be seen as flaky

•misunderstood by those who are not

in the "inside

• pick your own decision maker or mediator

• private

Litigation•expensive •drags on forever •Bad for Business

•respectable •money damages (if you can collect them)


Hamlet

• Layered Dispute Resolution


Hamlet’s Father-the Ghost

What is the Structure?

a. Meet and Confer

b. Mediation

c. Expert Determination

d. Arbitration


Elisnore Castle

More Cost Effective

http://www.folger.edu/imgdtl.cfm?imageid=1198&cid=2


Romeo and Juliet

Meet and Confer


Juliet and her Nursemaid

Who meets?

How long until meeting?

Where?


Death of Romeo and Juliet

When you get the CEO involved?


King Lear

• Mediation


Lear and the Fool

•Mediator Selection

•Time is of the Essence

•Who attends the Mediation

•What is the Goal?


Lear and Cordelia

• "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is

To have a thankless child!" Act I, scene iv

Enforceability


Macbeth

Expert Determination


The Three Witches

Where do you get these Experts?


Lady MacBeth

• "There 's daggers in men's smiles"

Scope of Determination


Richard III

The Pledge


Murder of the Princes’ in the Tower

What Can you Live With

And

What Can’t you Live Without


My Kingdom for a Horse

Nothing is “Non-Negotiable”


Othello

Med-Arb


Othello and Iago• "Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her!

Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw.To furnish me with some swift means of deathFor the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant. OthelloI am your own for ever. Iago

Defining the Process

• Who is Mediator

• Who is Arbitrator

• Confidentiality

http://www.shakespeare-revue.com/img/othello_title.jpg


Desdemona and Othello

Cross Mediated Arbitration


Merchant of Venice-Shylock

• "If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us,

shall we not revenge?" Act III, scene i

Do you really want your pound of flesh?


Portia

• Allocation


Portia and Shylock

Be merciful. / Take thrice thy money; bid me tear the bond.

•Some clauses and solutions


Shakespeare’s London

Don’t Let the Traffic Rush You

http://www.folger.edu/imgdtl.cfm?imageid=121&cid=2

Shakespeare’s Tragedies as a Guide to Contract Based Dispute Resolution

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