This autumn has seen the CESL participating in a number of arbitration-related events.

At the beginning of September, CESL’s Assistant Professor Monika Prusinowska was involved in organizing, together with Tiantong Law Firm and the China Young Arbitration Forum, a seminar on the issue of diversity in international arbitration titled “Putting Diversity into Practice”. One of the main goals of the seminar was to discuss various aspects of diversity of arbitrators in the system of international arbitration, including their gender, age and nationality, as well as the reasons behind the limited diversity. The event suggested also a proactive approach toward boosting diversity and one’s own profile in international arbitration by putting the attendees’ fingers on the pulse of the latest developments in the area of evidence taking in international arbitration.

The seminar was primarily directed to young practitioners at the beginning of their career paths and offered the opportunity of learning from some of the leading practitioners from China, including lawyers Cao Lijun of ZhongLun law firm and Xing Xiusong of Global Law Office, as well as the representatives of the principal arbitration centers in China – the CIETAC and the BAC. A few CESL Alumni, who already joined the professional ranks of dispute resolution departments, also attended the event.

On 13 and 14 October 2018, CESL was involved in the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) Academy on the SIAC procedural time and cost savers. The SIAC Academy dealt with the issues of emergency arbitrator, expedited procedure and early dismissal under the SIAC Rules. This two-day event compromised of panels discussions with academics and practitioners (including Prof. Lawrence Boo of the National University of Singapore and Gary Born who chairs the International Arbitration Practice of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP), as well as practical workshop on the use of the specific procedures. CESL Phd visiting scholar João Ilhão Moreira (University of Oxford) and CESL Alumni Meng Fangqin took part in the workshop playing the roles of counsels, while CESL Assistant Professor Monika Prusinowska acted as a teaching facilitator in the workshop.

Later the same month, on 20 October 2018, the Young International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) Skills Training Workshop on Evidence-Taking in International Arbitration Evidence took place at Tsinghua Law School. The training saw Gary Born of and Yuejiao Zhang of Tsinghua Law School acting as faculty members. A number of Chinese and foreign students of CESL attended the workshop and studied the evidence rules approached from a comparative law perspective.

Meanwhile, CESL’s Dispute Resolution Study Group meets weekly to take a closer look at various methods of resolving disputes in a cross-border context and the CESL’s Vis team prepares to attend the yearly CIETAC Cup competition.