A PDF version of the program is available here
29 September 2023
8:45-9:00 a.m. Breakfast
9:00-10:00 a.m. Opening Keynote
• The Limits of Reform: Views From the War Room Mélida Hodgson, Arnold & Porter; President-Elect, American Society of International Law
10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Panel I
Discussant: Julian Arato, University of Michigan Law School
• Discourses of ISDS Reform: A Comparison of UNCITRAL Working Group III and ICSID Processes
Andrea Bjorklund, McGill University & Jean Michel Marcoux, Carleton University
• Working Group III Reform of ISDS: A Model for International Law-Making?
Ladan Mehranvar, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
• The Construction of ‘Problems’ through UNCITRAL Working Group III: The development and reception of the Draft legislative guide on investment dispute prevention and mitigation
Jonathan Bonnitcha, UNSW & Mavluda Sattorova, Liverpool
• A Data-Based Study of the UNCITRAL Working Group III Negotiations on Investor-State Dispute Settlement Reform
Huaxia Lai, Peking University School of International Studies
12:00-1:30 p.m. Lunch
• Informal Discussion of UNCITRAL Working Group III Secretariat Note WP.231 Draft Provisions on Procedural and Cross-Cutting Costs and WP.232, Annotations to Draft Provisions on Procedural and Cross-Cutting Issues, available here.
1:30-3:00 p.m. Panel II
Discussant: Julianne Marley, Debevoise & Plimpton
• Control Mechanisms in a Multilateral Investment Court: Navigating Procedural Multilateralism and Substantive Bilateralism
Joshua Paine, University of Bristol
• Deconstructing Transparency: A System View of Investor-State Dispute Settlement Reforms
Jarrod Wong, McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific & Jason Webb Yackee, University of Wisconsin
• The Anti-Reformist Stance in Investment Law
Ben Heath, Temple University
3:00-3:15 p.m. Coffee Break
3:15-5:15 p.m. Panel III
Discussant: Ben Heath, Temple University
• The Judicial Function of Investment Tribunals and Institutional (Re-)design
Yanwen Zhang, University College London
• A Fourfold Genealogy of Investment Treaty Arbitration
Oliver Hailes, LSE
• Proportionality and the Ethic of Conviction in Investment Arbitration
David Schneiderman, University of Toronto
• Bits & Bytes: ISDS and the Framing of Data Law
Thomas Streinz, NYU School of Law & Julian Arato, University of Michigan Law School
7:30 p.m. Conference Dinner
Aventura, 216 E. Washington Street
30 September 2023
8:30-8:45 a.m. Breakfast
8:45-10:45 a.m. Panel I
Discussant: Kathleen Claussen, Georgetown
• How ISDS Has Become a Battlefront for Interstate Conflicts: The Case of Ukraine Erman Özgür and Günes Ünuvar, Max Planck
• The Conundrum of Lawfully Using Frozen Russian Assets to Compensate for the War Damages in Ukraine: International Investment Law Provides an Answer
Csongor István Nagy, University of Szeged
• Layering the Delegation of Adjudicatory Authority in Investor-State Dispute Settlement: National Courts as Agents of the Rule of Law in International Investment Arbitration
Katerina Florou, University of Liverpool
• A Roadmap to Establish a Flexible Multilateral Instrument on International Investment Dispute Settlement: Learning from the MLI
Mingjie Cui, University of International Business and Economics
10:45-11:00 a.m. Coffee Break
11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Panel II
Discussant: Jonathan Bonnitcha, UNSW
• International Investment Law and Human Rights – Procedural Solutions based on the Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration
Anne van Aaken, University of Hamburg; Diane A. Desierto, Notre Dame and Steven Ratner, University of Michigan
• Of Rights and Obligations: Comparing ISDS and WTO Dispute Settlement
Chios Carmody, Western University
• Investment Dispute Settlement in Special Economic Zones: ISDS in the Era of International Commercial Courts?
Julien Chaisse, City University of Hong Kong; Dominic Dagbanja, Western Australia,; Georgios Dimitropoulos, HBKU; Safaa Jaber, HBKU; Junianto James Losari, City University of Hong Kong; Kehinde Olaoye, City University of Hong Kong & Rene Uruena, Los Andes
• Are Investment Treaties Redundant? Evidence from Investor-State Disputes
Stratos Pahis, Brooklyn Law School & Andrew van Duyne, Debevoise & Plimpton
1:00-2:00 p.m. Lunchtime Lecture
Daniel Behn Memorial Lecture
Malcolm Langford, University of Oslo
2:30-4:30 p.m. Panel III
Discussant: Simon Batifort, Curtis Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle
• Arbitrating Corruption
Rachel Brewster, Duke
• Formalism in Investment Treaty Arbitration: A Critical Assessment
Richard Chen, University of Hawaii
• Bifurcating Foreign Investor Protection
Vera Korzun, University of Akron
• The Impact of Foreign Investors’ Challenges to Domestic Regulation
Weijia Rao, George Mason University; Mark Maffett, University of Miami & Mario Milone, UC San Diego
4:30-4:45 p.m. Coffee Break
4:45-5:45 p.m. Closing Keynote & Remark
• ISDS and Compensation, and Public International Law
Martins Paparinskis, University College London; International Law Commission