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    ‘Arbitration and Criminal Law’ – Opening Lecture by Prof Matthew Happold

    This lecture examines how arbitral proceedings and domestic criminal processes can interact; how parties to arbitrations have attempted to use domestic criminal proceedings to advance their interests; and how arbitrators can and should respond to such attempts.

    It concludes that arbitral tribunals must take account of concurrent national criminal proceedings but cannot defer entirely to them. This is not only because they undertake different roles but also because national authorities cannot always entirely be trusted. In turn, this means that tribunals can find themselves between Scylla and Charybdis, so that arbitrators must be skilful navigators to get safely to their destination: an enforceable award.

    Matthew Happold is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Luxembourg and a barrister at 3 Hare Court, London. He has a wide experience in international dispute resolution, including as counsel in cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Caribbean Court of Justice. Matthew also sits as a Recorder on the North Eastern Circuit, authorised to sit on civil and criminal cases. In 2022, he was appointed to the European Commission’s list of candidates suitable for appointment as an arbitrator in bilateral disputes under EU trade agreements.

    Matthew has published extensively across the international law spectrum: Recent publications include ‘EU External Action in International Economic Law: Recent Trends and Developments, (Springer: 2020) (co-editor with Mads Andenæs, Christina Contartese and Luca Pantaleo) and ‘Economic Sanctions and International Law’ (Hart: 2018) (co-editor with Paul Eden), as well as articles in the ICSID Review, the International and Comparative Law Quarterly, and the Journal of World Investment and Trade. He is currently writing a book on economic sanctions in international law in the light of States’ responses to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

    The lecture and the reception were hosted by Peters and Peters

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