Originally from Investment Treaty Arbitration and International Law - Volume 18

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PANEL 1

DR. KABIR DUGGAL: Okay, good morning, everybody. Welcome to the 18th annual Juris conference. This was something our friend Todd envisioned 18 years ago, and the idea really was to find the brightest and the best, upcoming superstars in arbitration and give them a platform to debate topics, just like a lawyer would. In other words, you do the best that your client asks you, even if it doesn’t truly reflect your position. So, you’re going to hear eight superstars talking today. They have been told what to argue, so it may not reflect their own views, but that makes it fun for all our authors. I did this ten years ago. You will enjoy it, even though it may not feel that clear right now. We’re also proud about two things. You know, we always try to make this conference represent the diversity of our field. For the past five or six years, we’ve had more women than men, and we’re really proud about that. I mean, just looking at this event today, we have speakers from Bosnia, Sweden, India, Canada, U.S., UK, Netherlands, Romania, Argentina. That’s pretty impressive. And we hope that our practice continues to become more international. I’m going to pass it very soon to our awesome moderator and host, Ian Laird. But before that, I just wanted to give a shout out to our two R.E.A.L. scholars. This is something Juris and R.E.A.L. have been collaborating to give opportunities. We have two. Gunnar, are you here? Do you want to stand up? Dominique, do you want to stand up? Okay? There are real scholars, one is from Harvard, so she went to the wrong school. Johnny’s from Columbia, he went to the right school. But do try to give them a very loving welcome. Enjoy New York. It feels like it’s summer. Enjoy the spectacular views and enjoy the conference. Thank you very much. Ian, turn them back to you.