The National Law School of India Review will be holding its 2nd annual Symposium on 18th – 19th April, 2009. The theme of the Symposium is “Towards Unification: Perspectives on Investment and Commercial Arbitration”; and it is intended to cover international commercial arbitration as well as investment treaty arbitration. According to the organizers:
This year, the NLSIR Symposium looks towards a new direction and seeks to address a most crucial issue of private law that can make or break dispute resolution in globalized India – arbitration. The relevance of this issue, of course, holds for the developing countries generally, and the Symposium therefore asks the question whether legal structures in developing countries are conducive to the rapid pace of commercial growth that most concede is now a necessary condition of development and progress. Arbitration has always been significant as a more expeditious vehicle for dispute resolution. However, the importance of arbitration has reached new levels since India has chosen to irreversibly embrace the forces of globalization. The choice to embrace globalization carries a commitment to revamp existing institutional structures to suitably address the infrastructural inadequacies that are antithetical to arbitration. It is crucial, however, to tailor this commitment to India’s unique circumstances and needs, both historical and legal, in the larger context of the unification movement with respect to international commercial arbitration.
The specific sessions of the Symposium are as follows:
· Domestic Arbitration – The Scope of Arbitrability and Applicable Law
· The Expansive Role of the Indian Judiciary and its Implications
· Investment Arbitration and MFN
· The Unification Movement
Some of these issues, particularly those relating to domestic arbitration, have been touched upon here. The issue relating to investment arbitration and MFN is discussed in the article linked here.
Speakers at the Symposium include
members of the higher judiciary, senior practitioners, and academicians. The list of speaker can be accessed here. Registration details are available here and here.