The ESIL Lecture Series hosts broadcasts of presentations on international law topics held at partner institutions, enabling the presentation to reach a wider audience of ESIL members and non-members alike.
Catharine Titi (CNRS–CERSA, University Paris II Panthéon-Assas) will give an ESIL lecture on Nationality and Representation on the International Bench on 25 November 2020 (12:00-13:30) as part of the SHIELD Lecture Series on ‘Transformations of Global Economic Governance’. The lecture will be held online via Zoom. The event will be co-hosted by ESIL, Study Hub for International Economic Law and Development (SHIELD) and iCourts, University of Copenhagen.
 
Abstract
There is little doubt that the nationality of the international adjudicator matters. Judges sitting on international courts have often arrived on the bench after a career in government and may identify with the interests of their home state. Empirical data shows that a judge called to decide a case involving the state of his or her nationality (national judge) tends to vote in its favour.
Yet nationality is not only relevant as an argument to discredit a judge who is seen as partial to his or her home state: it also confers legitimacy on international dispute settlement. International courts must be representative of their membership and representation calls for the inclusion of diverse nationalities in their ranks. In light of the ongoing efforts to establish a multilateral investment court, the lecture will inquire into nationality and representation in the composition of international courts and tribunals. It will review, on the one hand, nationality and geographical representation in the composition of the court as a whole and, on the other, the presence of national judges and judges ad hoc in specific chambers or divisions.
 
Catharine Titi, Dr iur., FCIArb, is a tenured Research Associate Professor at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)–CERSA, University Paris II Panthéon-Assas. She serves on the Steering Committee of the Academic Forum on ISDS, whose work contributes to the discussions in UNCITRAL Working Group III. In addition to sitting on the Board of the European Society of International Law (ESIL), she is a member of the Academic Council of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA) of the Center for American and International Law. Catharine is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb), she sits on the panel of arbitrators of the Court of Arbitration for Art (CAfA), and she is appointed to the roster of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s (USMCA) Annex 31-B panelists. She has previously been a consultant at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In 2016, Catharine was awarded the prestigious Smit-Lowenfeld Prize of the International Arbitration Club of New York for the best article published in the field of international arbitration.
INFORMATION & REGISTRATION
Deadline for registration: 24 November at 14:00
This Lecture will be filmed and posted on the ESIL website and YouTube Channel. To propose an ESIL Lecture, please read the Guidelines for the ESIL Lecture Series.