The following Columbia Law School course offerings are designed to prepare exceptional law students to successfully engage in matters of International Arbitration. These courses are offered at various times throughout the year.
This course entails a thorough examination of international commercial arbitration, that is, international arbitration based on commercial contract.
It begins with a brief look at the rationales behind the current appeal of arbitration as a mode of international dispute resolution. It then moves quickly to the issues associated with every phase in the life cycle of an international arbitral proceeding: the arbitration agreement (e.g. its scope and validity); means of enforcement of the arbitration agreement; the importance of the arbitral situs (e.g., providing the applicable legal framework of the arbitration); allocation of authority between courts and tribunals as to the enforceability of the agreement and the tribunal's jurisdiction; composition of the tribunal (e.g. ethical issues, conflicts of interest); choice of governing law; all aspects of the arbitral procedure itself (e.g., interim relief, evidence, issue and claim preclusion); judicial involvement during the course of the proceedings (e.g. interim relief and production of documents); challenges to the resulting award in annulment actions; and recognition and enforcement of the award (chiefly in terms of the New York Convention and the special circumstances raised by the presence of sovereign States and state instrumentalities).
Investor-State Arbitration also referred to as "International Investment Arbitration" represents a significant development in international dispute resolution. The fact that an investor, either an individual or a corporate entity, may have standing to enforce international law obligations, and then receive monetary compensation from a state, is a relatively new phenomenon in the development of international law.
Investor-state arbitration, as a species of international dispute resolution has acquired special significance in recent years. On the one hand, the recent US$50 billion award against Russia in the Yukos arbitration demonstrates the far-reaching powers of an investor-state tribunal. On the other hand, there is an ongoing debate relating to the power of three unelected individuals (i.e., the arbitral tribunal) who review decisions of lawfully-elected representatives in matters that touch upon a state's sovereignty. The recent arguments for restructuring investor-state arbitration in the context of the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations amplify this debate.
This spring term offering, co-taught by international arbitration practitioners Viren Mascarenhas and Rahim Moloo, is designed to meet the needs of students seeking an opportunity to bridge theory and practice in the context of international arbitration (covering both commercial and investment arbitration). Unlike many courses in international arbitration (including the fall term courses in International Commercial Arbitration and International Investment Law and Arbitration), the seminar will not deal heavily with arbitration in the courts or with the judicial role in enforcing arbitration agreements or entertaining challenges to awards. Rather, the focus of the seminar is on the conduct of all major aspects of international arbitration itself, mostly in the sequence in which they arise in practice.
Thus, the seminar proceeds through a series of major phases of an international arbitration in sequence, dealing with: drafting the arbitration agreement; arbitrator disclosures and challenges; anti-suit and anti-arbitration injunctions; threshold issues in arbitration (the preliminary hearing, conditions precedent, applicable law, confidentiality); multi-party and class arbitration; arbitrating with States and state entities; third-party funding; interim relief; discovery; conduct of the hearing (witness testimony, use of experts); arbitrator deliberations and the award; post-award relief (correction, modification, supplementation).
Course Catalog
This course examines all major aspects of the conduct of international cases in national courts. Primary emphasis is on the conduct of transnational litigation in U.S. courts. However, there will be some comparative treatment of the conduct of transnational litigation in the courts of other countries (notably the European Union and its Member States). Like the course in international commercial arbitration, after briefly identifying the major policy issues at stake in the subject, the course will turn to all major phases in the life cycle of the resolution of transnational disputes in national courts. These include: jurisdiction of national courts (both personal and subject matter); sovereign immunity, parallel litigation (actual or potential concurrent jurisdiction with legal proceedings on the same or similar claim in judicata and "clawback" litigation); service of legal documents on foreign soil, transnational provisional relief and the obtaining of evidence, assistance to litigation in the courts of other jurisdictions; and the recognition and enforcement of foreign country judgments (with special attention to international conventions on the subject).
Columbia Law School - Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Comprehensive Course on International Arbitration
A week-long systematic and comprehensive examination of the law and practice of international arbitration.
The course features both lecture and interactive segments and is designed for arbitrators, advocates, in-house counsel and others interested in international arbitration.
Upon completion, all attendees will receive a certificate of completion from Columbia Law School and the Chartered Institute.
Registration is now open for the September 2024 Columbia – CIArb Comprehensive Course. Download the 2024 Course Brochure for all information, pricing, and registration.
International Programs at Columbia
Our international programs offer unparalleled benefits to members of the Columbia Law community and visitors.
Paris Global Alliance
The Paris Global Alliance in Global Business Law and Governance allows up to 16 students from Columbia University to spend a semester abroad studying within a trans-Atlantic cohort of students at two world-class law schools in Paris. The yearlong tripartite program starts in New York in the fall semester when Global Alliance students from the University of Paris 1—Pantheon Sorbonne Law School (Paris 1) and from Sciences Po Law School (Sciences Po) join their Columbia Law School counterparts in studying a specialized curriculum at the Law School. Afterward, the Columbia students and Paris-based students spend the spring semester in Paris, continuing to follow the program’s curriculum there.
Pantheon-Sorbonne University - Paris 1 (Dual Degree)
The J.D./M1 dual degree program at the University of Paris 1—Pantheon-Sorbonne Law School (the Sorbonne or Paris 1) is ideal for students who aspire to practice law in both the U.S. and France. It offers a complete course of study in both legal systems, affording students an extremely high measure of preparation for the transnational practice of law. Upon the successful completion of the four years of study, participants will receive the J.D. from Columbia and the Master 1 in French law from the Sorbonne.