Arbitration online: law and practice

Proceedings from the event Arbitration online: law and practice, which addressed pressing issues in arbitration in the COVID-19 crisis, are now available online.

The event was the result of a collaboration between the Commercial Law Centre at Harris Manchester College, the Centre for International Dispute Resolution at Bucerius Law School, the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University of London, the Centre for Transnational Litigation, Arbitration and Commercial Law at NYU, and the National University of Singapore (a longstanding partner of the Commercial Law Centre).

Dr Andreas Hacke, visiting lecturer in the Law Faculty and distinguished practitioner member of the Commercial Law Centre, coordinated this group to produce a program addressing some of the most complex issues of arbitration law and practice that have arisen in the COVID-19 crisis, including issues on the validity and enforceability of arbitral awards, arbitral tribunals’ powers to order online hearings without party consent, rights to be heard and ordre public, and taking evidence online.

These issues were addressed by a panel of eminent speakers with a wealth of experience in arbitration, including Prof Dr Stefan Kröll, Niuscha Bassiri, Dr Andreas Hacke, Dr Christopher To, Prof Gary Bell, and Prof Dr Maxi Scherer. Speakers were organised into two panels (“Legal Challenges”; “Best Practice Responses”), the first of which was chaired by Prof Franco Ferrari, and the second by Dr Dominik Ziegenhahn.

With an audience of over 400 people, the discussion was rich and wide-ranging, spanning deep questions of arbitration law and legal philosophy and fundamental questions of arbitration practice. A recording of the full proceedings is available here.

The event is expected to be the first in a Commercial Law Centre series on COVID-19 and commercial law.