Professor Susan Franck Creates and is Featured at Conference on Diversity and Inclusion in International Arbitration
April 2, 2018
AUWCL Professor Susan Franck, chair of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA) Academic Council, helped create and will be the final speaker at the ITA’s conference on “Diversity and Inclusion in International Arbitration" Wednesday, April 4.
The conference, co-chaired by AUWCL Adjunct Professor Caroline S. Richard, is the 15th Annual ITA-ASIL conference that traditionally occurs before the Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) in Washington, D.C.
Speakers and conference attendees will address challenges related to diversity and the value of promoting inclusiveness in the international arbitration community, in an effort to tackle the issue, shape the conversation, and provide practical, actionable ideas to affect positive change.
While there has been increased attention of the value of promoting diversity in international arbitration, including initiatives such as the Equal Representation in Arbitration (ERA) Pledge, Franck observes, “this is the first ever conference that focuses exclusively on diversity and inclusiveness in international arbitration. Rather than an early morning add-on panel to existing programming, dedicating the 15th Annual ITA/ASIL conference to diversity allows us to focus substantively on the issues and advance the conversation in a constructive way.”
“The time is right to give the topic a public forum,” said Franck, whose research was a catalyst for this conference.
International Arbitration at AUWCL
International arbitration has been in the spotlight lately at AUWCL, including with the Center on International Commercial Arbitration co-hosting “A Conversation with Judge Schwebel” last fall. This event was a significant, one-on-on interview of Judge Stephen M. Schwebel, who currently acts an independent arbitrator and was formerly both the president of the International Court of Justice (1997-2000) and the president the World Bank Administrative Tribunal (2010-2017).
Watch the complete interview with Judge Schwebel, as he takes questions from Margarete Stevens, formerly a consultant at King & Spalding LLP and former senior counsel at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. Judge Schwebel discusses his six decade career, and many internationally renowned accomplishments, in international arbitration.
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