Originally from World Arbitration And Mediation Review (WAMR)

I am Doak Bishop. I am the Chairman of the Institute of Transnational Arbitration, the ITA, and it is my great pleasure to welcome everyone today to the 10th Annual ITA-ASIL meeting. We are particularly proud of our collaboration with ASIL and this is, as you note, the 10th anniversary of our working together to put on this program.

I would like to take one moment to thank our luncheon sponsors just in case it is overlooked later, the Brazil Canada Chamber of Commerce Arbitration & Mediation Center, Weil, Gotshal and Pillsbury Winthrop.

Now, this program was put together by the Academic Council of the ITA in conjunction with ASIL, and the program, as it is entitled, is Gateway Issues in International Arbitration. Those issues include the parties’ consent to arbitration; the role of the courts and the arbitrators in deciding whether the parties have consented; whether that role is different for commercial and investment arbitration; and whether the U.S. position is in, or out of, synch with that of the approaches of other countries on this problem.