On 14 January 2020, CRCICA organized a seminar on “The development of International Law and Investment Arbitration in a New Era”, at CRCICA’s auditorium. The speaker was Ms. Annette Magnusson, Secretary General of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce and General Counsel of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. Her speech focused on the role of international law and investment arbitration in light of globalization, climate change and digitalization.

Ms. Magnusson also addressed the relevance of the driving forces of change under three main topics: the changing demands on lawyers and international dispute resolution in an age of globalization; the potential use of international investment law, including investment arbitration, to address climate change; and how digitalization and a hyper-connected world offer new tools to develop international law. Frequent reference was made to the Stockholm Treaty Lab, a crowdsourcing competition initiated by the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce that challenged many teams to design an international policy encouraging investments which meet the climate objectives of the Paris Agreement. Ms. Magnusson commented:

“In an environment governed by globalization, the manner in which frameworks for international arbitration develops – be it on regional, national or international level – must be responsive, attentive and open to change. This is to enable international arbitration to continue to be that oil in the machinery for international trade, economic development and – ultimately – peace.”

Ms. Annette Magnusson

Participants represented the Egyptian State Lawsuit Authority, Egyptian General Investment Authority (GAFI), and members of law firms from Egypt, Germany, Ireland, and Yemen.