CLDP, in partnership with the Kosovo Judicial Institute (KJI), held intensive judicial consultations in New York, NY on January 27-31, 2014 for a delegation of seven Kosovar judges and one KJI representitive on international commercial disputes and bankruptcy. The delegation attended meetings, court hearings, and completed exercises with U.S. federal judges, U.S. attorneys, and other professionals at several judicial venues – including the New York Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York, the International Court of Trade, and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Eastern District of New York – as well as at a variety of institutions and private law firms, such as the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and the NY Federal Reserve Bank. The meetings provided an overview of the U.S. judicial system (particularly related to the to the life of a commercial dispute), the different court structures throughout the country, the U.S. bankruptcy process, and the role of alternative dispute resolution.  Additionally, the group broadly broached topics of customs, international trade, trade adjustment assistance, anti-dumping, countervailing duties, valuation and classification, arbitration, enforcement of arbitral awards, and the recognition of arbitral awards.

The goal of these consultations was to: (1) to train a core of commercial section Kosovo judges who will in turn serve as trainers at KJI; (2) to train judges the proper procedures in fairly, efficiently, and effectively adjudicating international commercial disputes; (3) to produce predictable, harmonized, and efficient adjudication of insolvency and bankruptcy cases; (4) to equip the core judges with the necessary tools and resources to understand how best to utilize the various options for dispute resolution.