Beyond arbitration: real-world outcomes

Ian Whitehurst is a senior barrister with over 30 years’ experience practising in serious and organised crime, financial crime, confiscation and asset recovery, civil fraud, regulatory enforcement, and cyber-enabled offending.

He is regularly instructed in high-value and complex matters involving organised crime groups, extreme violence, large-scale fraud, encrypted communications, digital assets, and parallel criminal, civil, and regulatory proceedings, frequently with international dimensions.

This article challenges the orthodox focus on “winning” in cross-border disputes, arguing that legal success is increasingly meaningless without enforceability. In a landscape shaped by sanctions, geopolitical fragmentation, and mobile assets, the real question is not who is right—but who can actually recover.

It reframes arbitration and litigation as tools within a broader, enforcement-led strategy, where asset location, jurisdictional leverage, and political risk are central from the outset. In high-risk cases, parallel negotiation, pressure tactics, and adaptive dispute resolution models often deliver more than a final award ever could.