ICDR Y&I, ICCA, Young ICCA and ICC YAF Conference on The Practice of International Arbitration
Post Event Report
On 18 September 2015, a joint ICDR Y&I, ICCA, Young ICCA and ICC YAF international arbitration conference was successfully held in Paphos, Cyprus. The conference, with title “The Practice of International Arbitration”, was the first conference in Cyprus to be co-organized by ICDR Y&I, ICCA, Young ICCA and ICC YAF.
The conference provided an overview of the practice of international arbitration, including recent issues arising therefrom, from the perspectives of the arbitral tribunal, counsel, the arbitral secretary and the arbitral institutions. The speakers and moderators included 22 distinguished international arbitration practitioners and academics from 13 countries, including Cyprus.
Opening remarks were given by Ms. Maria Athanasiou (Global Advisory Board Member of ICDR Y&I and International Arbitration Lawyer based in Cyprus) and Mr. Andreas Erotocritou (Partner at “A. G. Erotocritou” based in Limassol).
The first panel was led by Ms. Ruth Mosch (Rechtsanwältin, International Arbitration Lawyer based in Germany) who posed several questions to the panel speakers in relation to their perspectives as arbitrators on the practice of international arbitration. The first panel comprised Prof. Pierre Tercier (Emeritus Professor of the University of Fribourg and Honorary President of the International Court of Arbitration of the ICC, Paris), Ms. Niuscha Bassiri (Partner at “Hanotiau & van den Berg” based in Brussels), Mr. John Fellas (Partner at “Hughes Hubbard & Reed” based in New York) and Mr. Baiju Vasani (Partner at “Jones Day” based in London and Executive Board Member of ICDR Y&I).
The second panel discussed the practice of international arbitration from the perspective of counsel. The second panel comprised Ms. Katarina Jansson (Partner at “Stockholm Legal” based in Stockholm) as moderator, and Mr. Kumar Sumit Rai (Partner at “Economics Law Practice” based in Mumbai), Mr. Stamatios Tsetos (Partner at “Tsetos & Leboulanger Law Firm” based in Paris and Athens), Ms. Eleni Polycarpou (Special Counsel and Head of Arbitration at “Withers” based in London), Mr. Hugh Meighen (Associate at “Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer” based in London) and Mr. Agis Georgiadis (Partner at “Christos Georgiadis and Associates” based in Paphos and Nicosia) as speakers. The second panel presented the most important stages of international arbitration from counsel’s perspective, including the need of flexibility in the international setting.
The third panel led by Mr. Joshua Fellenbaum (Senior Associate at “Clyde & Co” based in London and Global Advisory Board Member of ICDR Y&I), and composed of Mr. Panagiotis Chalkias (Associate at “Hanotiau & van den Berg” based in Brussels), Mr. George Fasfalis (Associate at “Linklaters” based in Amsterdam), Mr. Francisco Franco Rodriguez (Foreign Visiting Lawyer at “Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr” based in London) and Dr. Hege Elisabeth Kjos (Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam), discussed the role and use of arbitral secretaries in practice, including the points covered by the recent Young ICCA Guide on Arbitral Secretaries.
Finally, the fourth panel presented the practice and rules of ICDR, ICC, PCA and ICSID, particularly with respect to, among other things, jurisdictional requirements, joinder and consolidation provisions. The fourth panel was led by Mr. Maurice Kenton (Partner at “Clyde & Co” based in London), and comprised Dr. Sarah Ganz (Counsel at “Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr” based in London and Global Advisory Board Member of ICDR Y&I), Mr. Alexander Fessas (Managing Counsel at the International Court of Arbitration of the ICC), Mr. Hugh Meighen (Associate at “Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer” based in London) and Dr. Michele Potestà (Attorney at “Lévy Kaufmann-Kohler Attorneys-at-Law” based in Geneva).
The conference was a successful one, reaching a record of attendance, with approximately 100 participants comprising mostly arbitrators, professors, students and business representatives from Cyprus, France, England, Germany, Egypt, Brussels, Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine and South Africa.