The oceanic feeling in international adjudication

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The Fifth Annual UCL and Baker & McKenzie LLP International Law and Litigation Lecture
Speaker: The Honorable Yves Fortier, PC, CC, OQ, QC, Ad. E (Cabinet Yves Fortier, Montréal; 20 Essex Street, London)
Chair: Professor Philippe Sands QC

About the lecture

Maître Fortier will address the merits and demerits of international arbitration and permanent international courts, against the background of the current debate relating to the investor-state dispute settlement in the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and in light of the controversy surrounding the arbitration between Croatia and Slovenia and the legitimacy crisis in investor-state arbitration.

About the speaker

Mr. Fortier is the former Chair and Senior Partner of Norton Rose (formerly Ogilvy Renault) in Montréal. He is a graduate of Université de Montréal, McGill University and Oxford University (Rhodes Scholar). He has been President of the Canadian Bar Association, Canada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York and President of the London Court of International Arbitration. He has been Counsel for the Government of Canada (including the Quebec Reference in the Supreme Court in 1998) and has argued cases before all courts and tribunals in Canada and the International Court of Justice in The Hague. During the last 25 years, he has acted as arbitrator and mediator in numerous international arbitrations under the auspices of all major arbitral institutions in the World. He is ranked as one of the world’s leading international arbitration practitioners. Since 2012, he serves as Chairman of the Sanctions Board of the World Bank. In 2013, he was appointed as a Member of the Security Intelligence Review Committee of Canada and sworn in as a member of the Privy Council.

About the UCL Centre for International Course & Tribunals

The Centre on International Courts and Tribunals was established at the Faculty of Laws, University College London (UCL), in 2002. It serves as the London home of the Project on International Courts and Tribunals (PICT), which was established in 1997 by FIELD in London and the Center on International Cooperation at New York University.

About Baker & McKenzie

Baker & McKenzie’s international arbitration practice includes more than 200 practitioners located in all major arbitration centres, providing our clients access to locally qualified counsel with a global outlook and region-specific knowledge. We frequently advise multinational corporations, state-owned entities and agencies, and foreign governments on complex cross-border disputes. Our arbitration experience includes representing clients in arbitrations under the rules of all the major institutions on matters related to investment treaties, international sanctions, engineering and construction projects, Mergers & Acquisitions, distributorship and license agreements, intellectual property, business interruption and political risk insurance policies.