The ½-day ITA-ASIL Conference is presented annually by the ITA Academic Council with the American Society of International Law (ASIL) immediately preceding the ASIL Annual Meeting. Scholarship is a hallmark of this conference.

Arbitration is frequently described as a “denationalized” dispute-settlement process. The description suggests that arbitral rules and practice should enjoy a large measure of autonomy from national courts. Arbitration idealists may envision a world in which arbitration operates autonomously, like the lex mercatoria of academic yore. An arbitration realist recognizes that national courts are unlikely to give up entirely the right to police arbitral inputs and outputs, even if they complain that most courts intervene too willingly, or too ineptly. Courts will intervene, but when should they intervene? How should they intervene?

Recent high-profile cases in the U.S. and Europe illustrate that questions about the roles of national courts in policing international commercial or investor-state arbitration have high stakes.

Our keynote address will examine the contemporary landscape as to relations between courts and international arbitration.  

Two panels will then discuss issues relating to judicial engagement pre-award and post-award, such as whether, when, and how courts should intervene to address allegations of arbitral misconduct, fraud, or corruption and whether, when, and how courts should issue anti-suit injunctions aimed at preventing parties from enforcing arbitral agreements or awards, and other issues relating to enforcement. And panelists will frame their remarks and observations around a more fundamental question: how might advocates of arbitral autonomy and defenders of court intervention recommend designing a system in which tribunals and courts viewed themselves not as escaping the jurisdiction of the one or of policing the conduct of the other, but as engaged in a constructive and mutually respectful relationship jointly promoting justice?

Conference Co-Chairs

Dean Susan Karamanian
Hamad Bin Khalifa University College of Law
Doha, QATAR

Prof. Jason Yackee
Professor of Law
University of Wisconsin Law School
Madison, WI

Schedule and Faculty

9:00-9:10 am - Welcome and Introduction

• Tomasz Sikora, ITA Chair; Exxon Mobil Corporation, Spring, Texas
• Prof. Gregory Shaffer, ASIL President; Georgetown Law School, Washington, D.C.

9:10-9:35 am - Keynote Address: Courts and Arbitration: A Complex Partnership

• Hon. Diane P. Wood, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Chicago, Illinois

9:35-10:50 am - Panel 1: Courts and Pre-Award Supervision

Moderator: Prof. Jason Yackee, University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison, Wisconsin

Panelists:

• Prof. Jack Coe, Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, Malibu, California
• Ashwita Ambast, Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague, The Netherlands
• Analia Gonzalez, Baker Hostetler LLP, Washington, D.C.

10:50- 11:00 am - BREAK

11:00 am - 12:15 pm - Panel 2: Courts and Post-Award Supervision

Moderator: Dean Susan L. Karamanian, Hamad Bin Khalifa University College of Law, Doha, Qatar

Panelists:

• Prof. Eric De Brabandere, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
• Marney Cheek, Covington & Burling LLP, Washington, D.C.
• Uche Onwuamaegbu, ArentFox Schiff, Washington, D.C.

12:15 – 12:30 pm - Concluding Remarks

• Prof. Victoria Sahani, Chair, ITA Academic Council; Boston University School of Law, Boston, Massachusetts