On the second day of the ICCA Sydney 2018 Congress, two separate panels considered ‘Arbitrations Involving Public Bodies and Public Interest Salient Issues’. The first panel, moderated by Professor Stavros Brekoulakis (Queen Mary University of London) focused on ‘the Increasing Participation of Public Entities in International Arbitration.’ The panel comprised of Marie Talašová (Government of…

The morning session of the last day of the ICCA Sydney 2018 Conference on “Potential of Arbitration Involving New Stakeholders” was moderated by Ndanga Kamau and had the insightful contributions of Dr. Campbell McLachlan QC, Prof. Makane Moïse Mbengue and Silvia Marchili. Ndanga Kamau opened the final plenary session by asking the following question: why…

The afternoon session of the second day of the ICCA Sydney 2018 Conference on “New Voices” was moderated by Monty Taylor and had the insightful contributions of Jawad Ahmad, Lucas Bastin, Samantha Lord Hill and Solomon Ebere. Monty Taylor opened the session by noting that not only was this a new initiative for ICCA, but…

The 10th panel session of the ICCA Sydney Congress 2018 with The Honourable P A Bergin, Singapore International Commercial Court; Dr. Shen Hongyu, Supreme People’s Court (China); Flip Petillion, Petillion (Belgium); and Henri C. Alvarez, Vancouver Arbitration Chambers (Canada) and moderated by Stephen L. Drymer, Woods LLP (Canada), continued this year’s theme of evolution and…

In a much-anticipated session at ICCA Sydney Conference 2018 moderated by Mark Kantor, the panel: Joongi Kim, Yonsei Law School (Republic of Korea); Judith Levine, Permanent Court of Arbitration (Australia, Ireland); Natalie L. Reid, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (Jamaica), tackled the following four “hot topics” in international arbitration: 1. illegally obtained evidence; 2. the One…

Part 1: Technology as Facilitation “The future is already here; it’s just not evenly distributed.” Paul Cohen, assisted by Gabrielle Nater-Bass, Hugh Carlson and Rashda Rana SC, opened his session with this quote from Mr William Gibson, and was able to demonstrate it through his discussion of technology as facilitation in arbitration. Upon entering the…

The morning session at ICCA Sydney Conference 2018 on “Revisiting Conventional Wisdom in the Organization of Arbitral Proceedings” was moderated by Chiann Bao and had the insightful contributions of Funke Adekoya SAN, Dr. Fuyong Chen, Klaus Reichert SC and Prof. Nayla Comair-Obeid. Chiann Bao insisted that we ought to deal with issues of procedure by…

The afternoon session at ICCA Sydney Conference 2018 on “Party Autonomy in Choosing Decision-Makers” was moderated by Prof. Dr. Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler and had the insightful contributions of Alfonso Gómez-Acebo, Audley Sheppard QC, Natalie Y. Morris-Sharma and Ruth Stackpool-Moore. The session commenced with Prof. Dr. Kaufmann-Kohler underscoring the importance of maintaining party autonomy in international arbitration….

What if Facebook, as a result of its recent negative publicity, had the opportunity to file a request for arbitration against Cambridge Analytica? A key principle of international commercial arbitration is its maintenance of confidentiality, but would the public interest in such an arbitration justify greater transparency? The afternoon panel of the first day of…

The theme of this year’s ICCA Congress is ‘Evolution and Adaptation: The Future of International Arbitration.’ Central to this theme was the topic of the First Plenary Session -‘Law-Making in International Arbitration: What Legitimacy Challenges Lie Ahead?’ The timing of such a discussion is apt given the Court of Justice of the European Union’s decision…

The panel on Arbitration Challenged II: The Realities of Arbitration Economics: Who Gets to Play, and What are the Implications, at ICCA Sydney 2018 Conference, was moderated by Susan Franck, American University, Washington College of Law (United States) and had contributions from Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Zulficar & Partners Law Firm (Egypt); John Beechey, BeechyArbitration Ltd…

The panel on Arbitration Challenged Part I: Reforming Substantive Obligations in Investment Treaties and Conditions of Access to Investment Arbitration, at ICCA Sydney 2018 Conference, was moderated by Meg Kinnear, Secretary General of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (Canada) and had contributions from speakers Christophe Bondy, Cooley LLP (Canada); Max Bonnell, White…