Transnational Arbitration

#YoungITA Mentorship Program - Speaker Series

The Elastic Corporate Form in Investment Arbitration

Virtual Event

Past Event

Virtual Event begins at 11:00 am EDT

Via Zoom
11:00 am - 12:30 pm EDT

Registrar: +1.972.244.3403
ITA: +1.972.244.3414
Fax: +1.972.244.3401
E-Mail: ita@cailaw.org

Overview

Presented by Young ITA

Please join us for the second webinar of the Young ITA Mentorship Program – Speaker Series. This program will showcase eminent international arbitration thinkers and practitioners discussing the latest developments in international arbitration. The topics will be tailored towards Young ITA mentees, a diverse group of students and early career arbitration professionals from around the world that are interested in international relations and trade including international dispute resolution. In addition, speakers will dedicate a portion of each talk to careers in arbitration.

#YoungITATalks is a series of local events presented around the world, featuring talks, workshops or interviews that cover a wide range of subjects relating to arbitration. The #YoungITATalks series is designed for education, conversation and sharing knowledge and experiences among young practitioners.

  • Karima Sauma, Young ITA Mentorship Program Chair, CICA-AmCham, Costa Rica
  • Julian Arato, Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School, New York
  • Edi Grgeta, Senior Vice President, Compass Lexecon, Chicago
  • Imad Khan, Winston & Strawn, Houston

Schedule and Faculty

Please review recommended readings before the talk. Download here

11:00 am


Welcome

  • Karima Sauma, Young ITA Mentorship Program Chair, CICA-AmCham, Costa Rica

11:05 am


The Elastic Corporate Form in Investment Arbitration

Dr. Julian Arato, Professor of Law at the Brooklyn Law School in New York, will be the second speaker of the Young ITA Mentorship Program – Speaker Series. Dr. Arato will discuss his work on the corporate form in investment arbitration.

Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) tribunals have been surprisingly varied in their solicitousness to the corporate form. Every corporation is a creature of national law, with a dependable set of formal characteristics at its core (such as “separate legal personality,” and “limited liability”). ISDS tribunals have varied wildly in their reverence for these basic features of the modern corporation. I argue that ISDS tribunals’ elastic formalism cannot be explained as from either a doctrinal perspective (as a clear matter of treaty interpretation) or a functional corporate law perspective. Moreover, the variation cannot be easily explained as a matter of simplistic ideological commitments (e.g. “pro-investor” or “pro-capital” bias). Indeed, the jurisprudence can prove highly inefficient for investors ex ante. The best account of the elastic corporate form in ISDS is rather an ex post story of tribunals consistently opening access to claimants and / or broadening the scope of available claims (“pro-claimant” as distinct from “pro-investor”). This account reveals a potential mismatch between the purposes of ISDS and its function in practice.

12:00 pm


Careers in Arbitration

  • Julian Arato, Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School, New York
  • Edi Grgeta, Senior Vice President, Compass Lexecon, Chicago
  • Imad Khan, Winston & Strawn, Houston (Costa Rica)

12:30


Adjourn

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