Mariana França Gouveia; Ana Carolina Dall’agnol; Peter Sester: Arbitration in the Portuguese-speaking World

One of the most rewarding aspects of practising in the field of international arbitration is working with clients, lawyers, and arbitrators from different countries. And of all the many countries in which I’ve had the pleasure to have worked, one of my favourites is Brazil. I consider myself extremely fortunate that work has taken me there at least once a year for the past 15 years or so. What I like best about Brazil is the people: welcoming, warm, diligent, enthusiastic—and always hopeful about the future. This hope is summed up in an interview I read a few years ago with the Carioca novelist, Paul Coelho, in which Coelho quoted a Brazilian poet who said ‘Don’t lose your hope in difficult times. God was born in Brazil’.

In the past 20  years, arbitration has grown dramatically in Brazil—this can be seen in the rising numbers of cases involving Brazilian parties, the rising number of cases seated in Brazil, the proliferation of excellent local arbitral institutions, the numerous pro-arbitration decisions of the Superior Tribunal de Justiça (the court with jurisdiction over cases involving foreign arbitral awards), the fact that the International Court of Arbitration the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) opened a hearing centre in São Paulo in 2018, and the popularity of international arbitration conferences in Brazil.