ITA-ASIL Conference

Overview

Presented by the Institute for Transnational Arbitration of The Center for American and International Law and the American Society of International Law

The ½-day ITA-ASIL Conference is presented annually in Washington, D.C. by the ITA Academic Council immediately preceding the Annual Meeting of the American Society for International Law (ASIL). Scholarship is the hallmark of this conference, the papers from which are published in the law journal World Arbitration and Mediation Review.

Gateway Issues in International Arbitration

“Gateway” issues in international arbitration are those issues that national courts are asked to address at the threshold of arbitration proceedings to ensure that the process is properly founded in party consent. Legal systems differ in their responses to the challenge of reconciling efficacy and legitimacy in arbitration, and even in the extent to which they acknowledge that the challenge exists and try to articulate a framework for addressing it. The challenge consists of identifying those issues that the courts properly address at the “gateway” of arbitration.

Download the Brochure (pdf)

For more details, download the online brochure.

ASIL Annual Meeting

The American Society of International Law (ASIL) 107th Annual Meeting, April 3-6, 2013, immediately follow the ITA-ASIL Conference at the Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel, Washington, D.C.  The Annual Meeting will address “International Law in a Multipolar World.”  For more information and important updates, visit: www.asil.org.

Conference Co-Chairs

Sophie Nappert
Avocat, Bar of Quebec, Quebec, Canada and
Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, London, United Kingdom

Prof. Thomas J. Stipanowich
Pepperdine University School of Law
Malibu, California

Schedule and Faculty

8:00 am

Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 am

Welcome and Introduction

R. Doak Bishop, Chair, Institute for Transnational Arbitration Advisory Board, King & Spalding, Houston, Texas

9:05 am

Keynote Presentation: Gateway Issues In International Arbitration

Prof. George A. Bermann, Chief Reporter, ALI Restatement (Third) of the US Law of International Commercial Arbitration; Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law, Walter Gellhorn Professor of Law, Columbia University Law School, New York

9:35 am

Commercial Arbitration

Introduction and Moderator:  

Prof. Thomas J. Stipanowich

In international commercial arbitration, “gateway” issues encompass a widely varying array of questions that must be decided in advance of addressing the merits, as well as the allocation of decision-making authority between courts and arbitrators. Among the more troublesome factual scenarios are issues regarding the scope of agreements to arbitrate; questions of privity and the rights and obligations of non-signatory third parties; and the fulfillment of conditions precedent to arbitral jurisdiction.  These “cases of trouble” have produced different responses by U.S. and European courts regarding appropriate default rules for decision-making, as well as the level of explicitness required to overcome default rules and reallocate decision-making authority.  A leading arbitration scholar and noted international practitioner engage with and offer spirited reflections on these challenging issues.

Panelists:

• Prof. Alan Scott Rau, Mark G. and Judy G. Yudof Chair in Law, University of Texas School of Law, Austin
• Timothy G. Nelson, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, New York

Roundtable and Q&A

10:45 am

Break

11:05 am

Investment Arbitration 

Introduction and Moderator: 

Sophie Nappert

When it comes to investment treaty arbitration, “gateway” issues potentially arise in regard to nearly every aspect of the case, starting with conditions precedent to jurisdiction, the claimant’s eligibility to present the claim, the existence of a covered investment, the scope of the tribunal’s jurisdiction and the claims’ admissibility.  The growing complexity of these issues may lead some to wonder whether it is becoming too difficult to gain access to arbitration of the issues giving rise to investment disputes at all or whether tribunals must continue to stand guard or even further re-enforce the entryway.  Two practitioners will address these issues by focusing on such questions as whether tribunals are taking conditions precedent established in investment treaties seriously enough and whether tribunals are permitting too many aspects of a dispute to be characterized as a threshold question.

Panelists:

• Abby Cohen Smutny, White & Case LLP, Washington, D.C.
• Laurence Shore, Herbert Smith Freehills New York LLP, New York

Roundtable and Q&A

12:15 pm

Concluding Remarks

Prof. Andrea K. Bjorklund, Chair, ITA Academic Council
Visiting Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, Montreal; Professor of Law, University of California-Davis School of Law, Davis

12:20 pm

Networking Luncheon 

CLE Credits

MCLE Credit

This course has been approved by the State Bar of Texas for 2.75 hours. Course ID Number: 901260700. Sign‐in sheets are/or cerificates of attendance will be available for ALL States.

Hotel Information

Other Information

Press Policy

All ITA conferences are held under the Chatham House Rule. Participants, including journalists, are free to use any information received, but comments may not be attributed to any speaker identified by name or affiliation.

Nondiscriminatory Policy

The Center for American and International Law does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or any other protected status in educational activities, scholarship programs or admissions.

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