SCIENCES PO LAW SCHOOL & MAYER BROWN ARBITRATION LECTURE

Arbitral procedure has in recent years been criticized for having become too long, too complex and too costly. The transnational procedural model that has been prevailing in the past twenty years is now perceived as having unduly privileged uniformity over flexibility, which would result in constraining the creativity of arbitrators and imposing boilerplate procedures that do not respond to the real needs of the parties. Initiatives have therefore recently been taken, such as the Prague Rules, with the aim of proposing an alternative procedural model inspired from the civil law tradition, as opposed to the current one which would essentially be inspired by common law concepts. Arbitration has also been under attack for its lack of transparency, which would damage the public interest as more and more cases go to arbitration rather than courts, while at the same time affecting the legitimacy of the entire system. Alexis Mourre’s lecture will discuss whether the current model is in crisis, what remedies can be proposed to preserve the trust in arbitration as a global system of disputes resolution, and what the role of arbitral institutions should be in shaping the future.

Alexis MOURRE, President of the ICC International Court of Arbitration

Debaters:
Antonias DIMOLITSA, Independent Arbitrator
Isabelle MICHOU, Partner Quinn Emanuel
José Ricardo FERIS, Partner Squire Patton Boggs, Lecturer SPLS
Romain SELLEM, Senior Legal Counsel Veolia

Moderator:
Dany KHAYAT, Partner Mayer Brown

The Lecture will be followed by a cocktail.

ARBITRAL PROCEDURE: IS IT BROKEN? CAN IT BE FIXED?