As part of the 2026 Basel Winter Arbitration School, Professor Anne Peters, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law, will deliver a keynote on “Ever More Transparent? A History of International Arbitration”. The keynote will take place on Monday, 2 February 2026 from 17:30 to 18:30 CET in the hybrid format. To attend the lecture in the online format, please register here.
In the course of the 20th century, arbitration has emerged and spread as an attractive means to settle disputes that cross state boundaries, among commercial actors, among states, and between investors and their host states. One of the hallmarks and advantages is the confidentiality of arbitration, as opposed to the publicity of court proceedings. It protects the reputation of the parties, shields business interests from competitors, and respects state secrets. However, such privatised settlement, removed from the public eye, is increasingly criticised. Arbitral proceedings, involving states, big business, or transnational investors, may affect public interest, ranging from environmental protection over labour rights or digital platform security. The lecture traces the evolution towards ever more transparency of arbitration, and discusses modalities for balancing the legitimate objectives of confidentiality against the openness needed to secure some form of accountability for the outcomes of arbitral proceedings.
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Anne Peters, LL.M. (Harvard) is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law, Titular Professor at the University of Basel, Honorary Professor at the University of Heidelberg and the Free University of Berlin, L. Bates Lea Global Law Professor at the University of Michigan Law School, and Global Law Professor at Peking University. She is a member of the German Federal Government’s Advisory Council on International Law, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and the Institute de Droit. Anne Peters was a member (substitute) of the Venice Commission (European Commission for Democracy through Law) for Germany (2011-2015) and legal expert for the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on the conflict in Georgia (2009). Born in Berlin in 1964, Anne studied at the universities of Würzburg, Lausanne, Freiburg, and Harvard, and held the chair of public international law at the University of Basel from 2001 to 2013.
