Conference programme

A hands-off pro-arbitration stance from courts and institutions was arguably necessary as arbitration evolved as a dispute resolution process, but has this gone too far?  For example, current and anticipated procedural reforms in England make the process of challenging awards – already very difficult – even more so.  Institutions scrutinize arbitral awards to varying different degrees, and in some instances not at all.  As commercial arbitration in particular is typically confidential, there may be little public scrutiny of outcomes.  Are there sufficient safeguards on the arbitral process?  What risk is there that the arbitration process becomes something which goes against the parties’ reasonable expectations without recourse, and does the pro-arbitration stance need to be revisited?

Where are disputes involving states (or state-owned entities) headed? With the chill of investor-state arbitration in certain jurisdictions, private companies and states alike are revisiting their dispute resolution options. What is the best forum for resolving such disputes? Will the new generation of investment treaties continue to govern such disputes or will commercial arbitrations arising out of state contracts or even standing international commercial courts lure away some of them?  This panel will consider the likely future landscape.

As the global economy confronts the challenges from new industries that will rise to disputes of the future, how suitable are our present processes and procedures to resolve those disputes? How do we fit these new disputes into the existing arbitral structure or should we be adapting our framework to make our system more attractive to trending disputes.

The UNCITRAL Model Law formed the bedrock of national legislative reform for the majority of national arbitration laws.  Since then, national legislatures repeatedly improved their own arbitration legislation, moving further and further away from the model text.  This panel will look at whether we have moved so far away from the model law that it is time to retire it, and if it is capable of renewing, what one key amendment from their jurisdiction would they make.