London and Paris Students Participate in Paris Arbitration Week 2025
Silvia Lamprinopoulou, Comparative and International Dispute Resolution LLM London (class 2025), and Francois Wouter Landman, Intellectual Property LLM Paris (class 2025), report on Queen Mary University of London's involvement in the Paris Arbitration Week 2025, including contributions from both our London and Paris LLM students to the Kluwer Arbitration Blog.
Paris Arbitration Week (“PAW”) is a major international event aimed at the worldwide community of arbitration practitioners, academics and institutions. PAW took place from 7 to 11 April 2025 and welcomed over 10,000 participants from 135 countries. It offered a diverse programme of panel discussions focused on current developments and challenges in international arbitration and networking events,
Queen Mary University of London (“QMUL”) had a strong presence at this year’s PAW. As part of its institutional involvement, QMUL co-hosted an event with White & Case LLP to present early insights from the 2025 International Arbitration Survey. The fourteenth major empirical project of the School of International Arbitration (“SIA”) and the sixth one sponsored by White & Case. The full report will be published in the coming months here. Dr Remy Gerbay represented the SIA at this event.
Alongside this, students from both the London and Paris LLM cohorts attended a range of other events, meeting professionals from around the world. In addition to their active participation, several students contributed to the Kluwer Arbitration Blog with insightful reports covering key sessions of the week, reinforcing QMUL's academic engagement with the international arbitration community.
In her blog post titled “Different Roles, Shared Realities – A Dialogue on Settlement and Document Production in Arbitration”, Silvia Lamprinopoulou reported on two panels co-hosted by Latham & Watkins and Columbia Law School. The first panel, featuring arbitrators, counsel, and clients, explored various approaches to facilitating settlement in arbitration, including the growing use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and the expression of preliminary views. The second panel focused on document production, examining the balance between efficiency and fairness, the role and value of witness testimonies, and the potential for improvements to the current system.
Mohamed Murad Mohamed Hamaima and Dalal Ziad Eljishi co-authored a piece on “Red Flags in Arbitration: Trends and Tools for Addressing Corruption” on a panel hosted by Navacelle, partnered with Forensic Risk Alliance. The session consisted of a group of leading legal and compliance experts who considered the issue of corruption in the context of international arbitration. Topics covered in this discussion included the intricacies in the identification and mitigation of corruption as well as the complex ethical and practical considerations confronting arbitrators and counsel. The panel also highlighted certain red and green flags which aid in the identification of corruption in international arbitration.
Cecilia Sanchez Bango reported in her post “Too Much or Too Little? Advantages, Disadvantages, and Alternatives Concerning the Amount of Information Available When Advocating a Damages Claim.” In this post, she covered an event hosted by Oxera Consulting LLP, which provided the perspectives of in-house counsel, external counsel, arbitrators and experts in the valuation and quantification of damages. As the title of the post suggests, the panel considered the amount information available to parties -in damages claims in arbitration proceedings. The panel also covered the concomitant advantages and disadvantages facing parties when there is either too much or too little. Information.
Cecilia Sanchez Bango also co-authored a post with Francois Wouter Landman on “A Tale of Two Reforms” about a panel hosted by Watson Farley & Williams. The panel, consisting of different experts involved in the reform of arbitration laws in England and France, discussed the changes to the new arbitration law of England and the pending changes to the arbitration laws of France.
Francois Wouter Landman contributed to two further posts titled “How Do Rising Arbitrators Gain Visibility and Appointments?” and “Arbitrage International meets Artificial Intelligence.” The first of these posts concerned a panel discussion hosted by multiple professionals, all of whom are members of the executive committee of the Rising Arbitrators Initiative. The host panel invited comments from guest speakers of leading international arbitral institutions onthe procedure adopted in selecting panels of these institutions and being offered the seemingly ever elusive first appointment as an arbitrator. The second post covered two panel discussions hosted by TrialView and 39 Essex Chambers and TrialView and Ashurst LLP. These discussions focused on the practical difficulties of the use of AI, the growing importance of the use of AI and potential resolutions of these difficulties in arbitration proceedings.
Rouba Moukawem authored a post on “Forging a European Culture of ADR in Industrial Property”. The event featured two panels: the first examined how arbitration and mediation are increasingly utilised in resolving complex issues. The second panel introduced the Patent Mediation and Arbitration Centre (PMAC) under the Unified Patent Court (UPC), highlighting its potential to provide confidential, efficient, and expert-driven forums for cross-border industrial property disputes.
Comprehensive coverage of PAW can be found on Kluwer Arbitration Blog.
To celebrate Paris Arbitration Week 2025, LLM students, alumni, and mentors from both the Paris and London cohorts gathered for a social evening on 8 April 2025 at QMUL’s campus at University of London Institute Paris (“ULIP”). The event was hosted by Prof. Maxi Scherer and Dr Maria Fanou. It offered a memorable opportunity for networking and usefulexchange of perspectives, experiences, and ambitions.
QMUL’s strong presence at PAW 2025 reflects its ongoing commitment to providing students with access to the international arbitration community. We hope future cohorts of QMUL LLM students – both in London and Paris – will continue to take part in such initiatives and contribute to the field.
A special thanks is extended to Dr Maria Fanou of the SIA, QMUL, for arranging this opportunit and her continuous engagement with the students during PAW to make the publication of their posts a reality.
More information
- Find out more about studying the Comparative and International Dispute Resolution LLM at Queen Mary.
- Find out more about the QMUL Paris LLM Programme.
- Read more about Queen Mary's School of International Arbitration and their work.