The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two-thirds of the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola, which it
shares with Haiti. With a population of about 10.5 million, the Dominican Republic is a middle-income
country, with the largest economy of Central America and the Caribbean.
The laws of the Dominican Republic are essentially based on the Roman law tradition, as transmitted through
French and Spanish law. Although arbitration was contemplated in the French Code of Civil Procedure of
1807 which was adopted by the Dominican Republic in 1884, the use of this alternative dispute resolution
mechanism among business people and its acceptability by local courts began to take form in the early 1990s,
and is still evolving. The Centers for Alternative Dispute Resolution of the Chamber of Commerce and
Production of Santo Domingo (CRC) and Santiago (CRC-Santiago) are the most prominent arbitral institutions
in the country.
