Location:
WebEx
Depending upon how one defines the term ‘international commercial court’, the 21st century has witnessed a growth, particularly in the Middle East and Asia, but also in Europe, of specialist courts which have been established with the resolution of international commercial disputes in mind. An esteemed panel of judges and academics will discuss the rise of specialist international commercial courts and their impact on the resolution of international commercial disputes. In particular, the panel will discuss the role that these new courts are fulfilling in the field of international commercial dispute resolution, with a particular emphasis on the role and character of the judiciary and the development of jurisprudence, as well as broader issues relating to access to justice more generally.
Moderator
Dr. Susan Karamanian
Dean of the College of Law at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (Qatar)
Susan L. Karamanian is Dean of HBKU's College of Law. She was previously the Associate Dean for International and Comparative Legal Studies at the George Washington University Law School and a partner at Locke Lord LLP in Dallas. Susan is a member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) and a trustee of the Center for American and International Law. She has lectured at universities around the world and at the OAS Academy of International Law and the Hague Academy of International Law (Director of English Studies). She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Council on Germany, the American Bar Foundation, and the Texas Bar Foundation.
Speakers
Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd
President of the Qatar International Court
Lord Thomas has been President of the Qatar International Court since 2018. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1969, becoming a Queen’s Counsel in 1984. In 1996 he was appointed a High Court Judge and was assigned to the Queen’s Bench Division, serving on the Commercial Court. In 2003 he became a Lord Justice of Appeal and was appointed to the Privy Council. He served as the Senior Presiding Judge from 2003 to 2006. In 2008, he was appointed Vice President of the Queen’s Bench Division and Deputy Head of Criminal Justice. In 2011 he became President of the Queen’s Bench Division. In 2013, he succeeded Lord Judge as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. He retired from that post in 2017 prior to taking up the present position in Qatar.
Justice Quentin Loh Sze-On
Judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore and Judge in Charge of the Singapore International Commercial Court
Justice Quentin Loh was appointed as Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court in 2009 and later, as Judge in 2010. Prior to that, he was Managing Partner of Cooma, Lau & Loh, a firm he co-founded in 1978. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 1999. In 2001, he moved to Rajah & Tann as an Executive Committee member before becoming Deputy Managing Partner in 2003. Until his appointment as a Judicial Commissioner, he was also Director of Maxwell Chambers, a dispute resolution complex located in Singapore.
D.J. Duco Oranje
President of the Netherlands Commercial Court (Court of Appeal)
The Honorable Charles N. Brower
Judge of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague, The Netherlands
Judge Brower’s professional life has been divided equally between law practice as a litigator, trial and appellate lawyer with the global law firm White & Case LLP in New York City and Washington, D.C., then as an Arbitrator Member of Twenty Essex (Chambers) in London, and public service. Latter positions have been in the U.S. Department of State (1969-1973) as Assistant Legal Adviser for European Affairs, Deputy Legal Adviser and Acting Legal Adviser; Judge of the Iran- United States Claims Tribunal in The (1983-present); Deputy Special Counsellor to the President of the United States (sub-Cabinet Rank)(1987); and Judge ad hoc of the International Court of Justice in three active contentious cases (2014-present).
Professor Georgios Dimitropoulos
Professor at the College of Law at Hamad Bin Khalifa University and co-editor of the forthcoming publication International Commercial Courts: The Future of Transnational Adjudication
Georgios Dimitropoulos is an Associate Professor at HBKU College of Law. Georgios studied Law at the University of Athens, and holds an LL.M. from Yale Law School, and a Ph.D. summa cum laude from the University of Heidelberg. Before joining HBKU he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg and a Hauser Research Scholar at New York University (NYU) School of Law. His work has appeared in such journals as the Washington Law Review, the Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business, the Journal of International Dispute Settlement, the Journal of World Investment & Trade, the Law & Practice of International Courts & Tribunals, the Journal of Law & Policy, and the Maastricht Journal of European & Comparative Law.
