Judicial arbitration is not the first type of dispute resolution that occurs to many people, but for Christine Lagarde, the finance minister for the nation of France, it was the right choice.  Speaking recently on the issue of restructuring Greece's debt to the European Union, Lagarde also revisited the issue of a dispute the French government had with entrepreneur Bernard Tapie.

Judicial Arbitration the Right Choice

In that case, the French government entered into judicial arbitration with Bernard Tapie.  This was at the direction of Christine Lagarde.  However, at the time she did not explain in detail her reasons for choosing this route.  This week, Lagarde was more open as she revisited the issue.

Lagarde claimed that if the case had gone to trial and taken full advantage of the court system, the government stood to lose as much as seven billion Euros due to the protracted and costly nature of the court process including all its appeals and layers of bureaucracy.  This did not seem like a valid use of government revenue considering that Tapie's activities cost the French government approximately 285 million Euros. 

For these reasons, explained Lagarde, it was her determination that judicial arbitration represented a better way to resolve the dispute with Tapie.

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