The 8th Geneva Global Arbitration Forum

Wednesday & Thursday December 6 & 7, 2000

Settling Disputes on a Shrinking Planet

Wednesday December 6, 2000

First session: How can parties from emerging countries secure the financing necessary to bring and litigate claims before international arbitral tribunals?

12:00 Registration

14:00 The hidden barriers to the universality of international arbitration

Jacques Werner, Werner & Associés, Geneva
Conference Chairman

14:15 Real-life cases where parties could not get access to arbitral justice due to their inability to secure the necessary financing

Ghaleb Mohammed Abu Saa, Riyadh
Catherine Li, Professor of Law, Taiwan

15:00 How to remedy this situation? The possible ways:

The WTO solutions: The Advisory Centre on Wto Law
Claudia Orozco, Commercial Counsellor, Mission of Columbia to the European Union, Brussels

The solutions offered by the European Development Fund and the Permanent Court of Arbitration
Michael Schneider, Lalive & Associés, Geneva

Icc past endeavours
Jean-François Bourque, Itc – International Trade Center, Geneva

The insurance and investment banking option
Oliver Prior, Director, Research & New Products Department, Willis Ltd., London
Pierre-Yves Tschanz, Tavernier Tschanz, Geneva

16:45 Is the problem real? Why should companies of emerging countries be helped?

Panel discussion including
M.I.M. Aboul-enein, Chairman, Cairo Regional Centre of International Commercial Arbitration

Robert Briner
Lenz & Staehelin, Geneva
Chairman, Icc International Court of Arbitration, Paris

Deborah Enix-ross, Senior Legal Officer, Wipo Arbitration and Meditation Center, Geneva

The Rt. Hon. The Lord Hacking, Littleton Chambers, London

Serge Lazareff, Lazareff & Associés, Paris
Chairman

18:00 Cocktail reception

Thursday December 7, 2000

Second session: The WTO Dispute Settlement System

08:00 Registration

09:00 The frailty of the arbitral process in cases involving authoritarian States- and other pitfalls of investment arbitration

Jacques Werner

09:30 How well is the arbitral system performing in investment disputes? The views of the concerned countries

Panel discussion including
Mary Concilia Anchang, Attorney-at-Law, Yaounde

Abdel Hamid El-ahdab, Atttorney-at-Law, Paris and Beirut
Secretary General of the Euro-Arab Arbitration Council, Paris

J. Cameron Mowatt, Thomas & Partners, Vancouver

Guiguo Wang, Director, Centre for Chinese and Comparative Law, City University of Hong Kong

11:00 Break

11:30 Current issues in investment disputes: Are Bits or multilateral agreements the way ahead? What role should the Wto dispute settlement system play? How to best protect arbitrators? Should arbitrators' decisions in investment disputes be reviewable?

Panel discussion with
Florentino Feliciano, Chairman, Appellate Body Wto, Geneva
Eloïse Obadia, Counsel, Icsid, Washington, D.C.
Thomas Waelde, Jean Monnet Professor of European Energy Law and Economics, University of Dundee

12:30 Lunch

Third session: the functioning of the Wto dispute settlement mechanism,: After Seattle, a reality check

14:00 Trips rulings and the developing countries

Carlos Morrea, Professor, University of Buenos Aires
Tshimanga Kongolo, Assistant Professor, School of International Public Policy, Osaka University
Richard P. Rozek, Senior Vice President, National Economic Research Associates Inc., Washington, D.C.

15:00 Trade, environment and the role of the Ngos

Robert Howse, Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Reinhard Quick, Head of the Liaison Office, European Institutions of the German Chemical Industry Association, Brussels

16:00 Compliance with the Wto rulings and other procedural problems

Comments by
Gary N. Horlick, O'Melveny & Myers LLP, Washington, D.C.

Followed by a panel discussion including
Pieter Jan Kuiper, Director, Legal Affairs Division, Wto, Geneva
David Palmeter, Powell Goldstein Frazer & Murphy LLP, Washington, D.C

The afternoon panels will be moderated by
Petros C. Mavroidis, Professor of Law. University of Neuchâtel

The conference will end at 17:30

Conference chairman: Jacques Werner