ICCA announces 2020 Congress Programme theme and Programme Committee
We are pleased to announce that the theme for the next ICCA Congress programme will be “Arbitration’s Age of Enlightenment?”. The Congress, to be held from to 10-13 May 2020, will be hosted in Edinburgh by the Scottish Arbitration Centre. As is customary, the Congress theme was devised by the Congress Programme Committee, which is co-chaired for Edinburgh 2020 by Cavinder Bull (Singapore), Loretta Malintoppi (Italy), and Constantine Partasides (UK), and will consist of the following members:
- Stephen Drymer (Canada)
- Babatunde Fagbohunlu (Nigeria)
- Susan Franck (US)
- Alvaro Galindo (Ecuador)
- Francisco González de Cossío (Mexico)
- Jean Kalicki (US)
- Elie Kleiman (France)
- Jan Kleinheisterkamp (Germany)
- Michelle Macphee (UK)
- Ziad Obeid (Lebanon)
- Shaneen Parikh (India)
- Lindy Patterson (Scotland/UK)
- John Rhie (Korea)
- Christian Tams (Germany)
- Foo Yuet Min (Singapore)
- Galina Zukova (Latvia)
The Congress theme was chosen to highlight the progress that the practice of international arbitration has made as a whole. “Despite the current gospel of doom, the system of arbitration has experienced extraordinary growth and success over the last 20 years, to emerge today as a major form of international dispute resolution throughout the world. As a consequence of its growth and success, the exchange of new ideas about arbitration’s future is now greater than ever before, and it is coming from a wider variety of stakeholders and interested parties,” explained the Programme Chairs.
The 2020 ICCA Congress provides an ideal platform to harness this progress and encourage the exchange and implementation of new ideas. In the words of the Programme Chairs: “We need to provide an objective assessment of international arbitration today and remind ourselves of its many accomplishments as well as identify the areas in which the process could be improved… Rather than looking inwards, the Edinburgh Congress will focus on new ideas that can help our process progress even further, including those that come from new voices, that emanate from in-house counsel, or new centres of arbitration activity and even – or especially – from beyond our field.”
For nearly 60 years, ICCA has provided the international arbitration community with a forum to engage with one another and to develop and improve dispute resolution theory and practice. ICCA is pleased to offer the international arbitration community another opportunity to do just that at the Edinburgh 2020 Congress. Said ICCA President Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler: “All members of the international arbitration community are invited to join the 2020 ICCA Congress in Edinburgh. Entitled ‘Arbitration's Age of Enlightenment?’, the Congress will be a time to take stock of achievements and explore ideas to adapt to a fast changing environment, and shape the future of international arbitration, together.”
Registration for the Congress is now open. Visit the Host Organization’s dedicated website: icca2020.scot for more information. The ICCA website will also provide regular updates on the Programme and Congress papers.