The DAJV Berlin warmly invites you to attend the lecture of Professor George A. Bermann (Columbia University, NY) on the topic "What does it mean to be pro-arbitration?".

The lecture will take place on October 19, 2023 at 6 pm in Berlin and will be jointly organized with the Lawyers' Research Institute of Humboldt University (Forschungsinstitut für Anwaltsrecht der Humboldt-Universität).

International arbitration commentators commonly ask of a proposed policy or practice whether it is ‘pro-‘ or ‘anti-arbitration’. Framing the question that way presupposes a shared understanding of what does or does not make a policy or practice arbitration-friendly. In truth, the ways in which policies or practices may affect international arbitration’s well-being are manifold. They may even serve international arbitration’s well-being in some respects while actually disserving it in others.

It therefore behooves those who take international arbitration’s well-being seriously to acknowledge the multiplicity of metrics for identifying what is ‘pro-’ and what is ‘anti-arbitration’ and to seek the most appropriate trade-offs among them, in consideration of their respective importance to international arbitration’s well-being as a means of dispute resolution.

Also, too often a policy’s or practice’s friendliness to arbitration is examined through too narrow a lens.  Society embraces values that are fundamental in ways that surpass—and on occasion properly outweigh—international arbitration’s interests narrowly conceived. Giving effect to those values and securing the legitimacy thereby promoted may — even if doing so fails to advance a narrowly pro-arbitration agenda – be the most pro-arbitration move one may make.

Kind regadrs,

Dr. Anja Costas
Tarek Mardini, LL.M.
Prof. Dr. Giesela Rühl, LL.M.