Professor Franco Ferrari to lecture on limits to party autonomy in international commercial arbitration

On 6 May 2021, at 12.30 pm NY time, Professor Franco Ferrari, the Center’s Director, will deliver a lecture on “Limits to Party Autonomy in International Commercial Arbitration”, based on a paper co-authored with Dr. Friedrich Rosenfeld to be published in the forthcoming Cambridge Compendium of International Commercial and Investment Arbitration, which Professor Ferrari is editing together with Professors Andrea Bjorklund (McGill) and Stefan Kröll (Bucerius). The event is co-hosted by and DIS40 (Young Arbitration Practitioners of the Deutsche Institution für Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit e.V. (DIS) – German Arbitration Institute.

In his talk, Professor Ferrari will challenge the liberalist premise that international arbitration is a process between two rational parties who are at liberty to choose how to resolve their disputes by means of alternative dispute resolution. But he will do so without any intention to downplay the key role of party autonomy or to depart from the liberalist tradition. The point that will be made is simply that arbitration involves at least four potential stakeholders whose interests may overlap in some cases but diverge in others. And this entails limitations to party autonomy.

To register and receive the access code for the online meeting, send an email to germany@aia-arbit-40.org.