Foreword

Every attorney working on international arbitration matters today has probably been faced at some point with the question "Does a Transnational Legal Order Exist in International Arbitration?" Although the question may emerge often when addressing choice-of-law related issues in international arbitration practice, finding a comprehensive response requires an in-depth analysis on multiple fronts.

This explains that we chose this topic as the theme for our sixth bi-annual Symposium of International Arbitration, held on November 10 and 11, 2021 at the Center on International Commercial Arbitration of the American University Washington College of Law. We wanted to provide an academic forum to systematically analyze the tension between the transnational legal character attributed to some rules applied in international arbitration and the localized resistance of national legal systems. The current practice of international arbitration is situated somewhere in between these transnational and national poles, and sound academic discussion about the precise place it occupies is a healthy self-reflection about our field of practice.

We were fortunate to co-organize this sixth Symposium with the Institut Suisse de Droit Comparé. I am also grateful to the panel chairs who during the two-day discussions led the two panels on international commercial arbitration, and another two on international investment arbitration: Prof. Dr. Ignacio Tirado, UNIDROIT Secretary General; Prof. Dr. Jane Willems, Associate Professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing (China); Prof. Dr. Krista Nadakavukaren Schefer, Vice-Director of the Institut Suisse de Droit Comparé in Lausanne (Switzerland); and Prof. Dr. Rodrigo Polanco, Legal Counsel for Hispanic Legal Systems at the same Institut Suisse de Droit Comparé.

The Symposium was co-sponsored by UNIDROIT (Rome), the Hague Conference on Private International Law (The Hague), Bucerius Law School (Hamburg), Escuela Libre de México (México), Tsinghua University School of Law (Beijing), and the Africa Arbitration Academy (Nigeria). Besides the co-organizers, the Symposium was opened by the Secretary Generals of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), Prof. Dr. Christophe Bernasconi, and of UNIDROIT, Prof. Dr. Ignacio Tirado. In addition, I want to highlight the thorough edition of this special issue featuring the articles of the Symposium panelists in Transnational Dispute Management (TDM), our media partner all along most of the Symposium series. Last but not least, I want to thank Professors B jörn Arp, from our Center on International Commercial Arbitration, and Rodrigo Polanco, from the Institut Suisse de Droit Comparé, for their dedication to the flawless organization of the Symposium and this publication.

Washington, D.C., January 30, 2022

Horacio A. Grigera Naón
Independent International Arbitrator
Director of the Center on International Commercial Arbitration at American University Washington College of Law