UNCITRAL Working Group III- Reform or Replace the Investor-State Dispute Settlement System?

Webinar 2 – Should Global Institutions be held to their Mandates under ISDS?

August 20, 2021, at 12:00 p.m. EDT/9:00 a.m. PDT

CIArb NAB presents a webinar, “Should Global Institutions be held to their Mandates under ISDS?” –  on Friday, August 20, 2021, at 12 p.m. EDT/ 9:00 a.m. PDT.

The webinar is the second in a three-part series on UNCITRAL Working Group III – Reform or Replace the Investor-State Dispute Settlement System? and will discuss the ongoing worldwide debate and discussions regarding the ISDS system and the measures proposed by UNCITRAL’s Working Group III.

Moderated by Dr. Alan Anderson, panelists Prof. Victoria Shannon Sahani, Prof. Frank J. Garcia, Mr. Karl Lockhart, and Ms. Chuanyu Fan will provide insights into critical topics now under discussion before UNCITRAL’s Working Group III, including financial access to justice in investment treaty arbitration; third-party funding and its regulation; and the duty to mitigate damages in ISDS. Below are brief bios of the panelists and the moderator:

Prof. Victoria Shannon Sahani is Associate Dean of Special Projects and Professor of Law at Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law; co-author of Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration; member of ICCA-Queen Mary Third-Party Funding Task Force; Chair of ITA Academic Council; Member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR; and Co-Chair of the Academic Subcommittee of the USCIB Arbitration Committee.

Mr. Karl Lockhart is an associate at a global law firm specializing in international investigations and disputes. Twice seconded to the firm’s Singapore office for matters in South and Southeast Asia, he has extensive experience in Africa, having worked on development projects in Tanzania, interned at the World Bank in South Africa, and researched human rights issues in Zambia. Karl graduated Order of the Coif from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he received the Monroe Leigh Fellowship in International Law and was a member of the Virginia Law Review. 

Mr. Frank J. Garcia is Professor of Law and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar at the Boston College Law School. A Fulbright Scholar, he has lectured widely on globalization and international economic law in Europe, South America and the Asia/Pacific region. He is the author of, among other volumes, Consent and Trade: Trading Freely in a Global Market (2019) and Global Justice and International Economic Law: Three Takes, both published by Cambridge University Press. 

Ms. Chuanyu Fan is currently a Ph.D. candidate at both University Paris-Est, France and at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Her doctoral thesis concerns the permanent sovereignty of States over their natural resources in international economic law. Her professional experience includes long-term internships in international law firms, multinational corporations, and the Beijing Arbitration Commission. She specializes in corporate law and project finance. Admitted to the Paris Bar (CAPA), she is now an associate at Allen & Overy. 

Dr. Alan M. Anderson, PhD, FCIArb, is a Fellow and Council member of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, a Fellow of the Asian Institute of Alternative Dispute Resolution and an accredited international mediator. He has participated in the work of UNCITRAL’s Working Groups II and III since 2015. He is the President of Alan Anderson Law Firm LLC in Minneapolis, MN, and an associate Door Tenant with Littleton Chambers in London, where he is a member of its international arbitration group. He is the co-editor of The Investor-State Dispute Settlement System: Reform, Replace or Status Quo?, which was published in late 2020 by Kluwer Law International. 

This program is free, but space is limited. To register, go to: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GLoat-xOR3GYT-7zdd2SCw