- Claudia Salomon has been reappointed President of the ICC International Court of Arbitration (the Court) for a second three-year term, after a highly successful initial term. Her reappointment takes effect on 1 July 2024 and follows a formal election on 11 June by the ICC’s supreme governing body, the World Council.
- Claudia made history when first appointed to the role in July 2021, being the first woman president in the Court’s 100-year history.
- During Claudia’s initial three-year term, the Court made significant strides in:
expanding its global reach:
- staging conferences and roadshows in new territories, to promote the benefits of arbitration in giving comfort to international business partners and encouraging trade,
- and offering educational events, in the form of Academies, to invest in the upskilling of the local legal communities.
A prime example is the Court’s work in Africa where, as a result, not only has arbitration become the preferred method of dispute resolution around the continent, but African arbitrators are now being appointed to cases that have nothing to do with Africa.
enhancing diversity & inclusion in arbitration
- Strengthening the Court’s LGBTQ network
- Increasing the geographic, gender and generational diversity of the Court’s membership
- Launching a Task Force on Disability Inclusion in International Arbitration
extending its range of services
- Launching a new Expedited Procedure designed specifically for small businesses, opening up the benefits of ICC arbitration to them
embracing technology, (not just automation, but transformation)
- Launching a pioneering digital case management platform, ICC Case Connect, providing a secure space for parties, arbitral tribunals and the ICC Secretariat to share files and other information.
engaging with clients and placing them centre of the Court’s thinking
- Primarily through a series of Fireside-Chat-style interviews with high-profile business leaders, Claudia has drawn out truths about the realities of their work and lives. The Court has used these insights to shape its services better.
- Claudia’s initial term also covered the Court’s Centenary in 2023, celebrated with a year-long programme of Centenary events and the publication of a Declaration on Dispute Prevention and Resolution. This document set out the Court’s vision to shape dispute resolution and prevention for the next century.
- Despite the fact this first term began in the middle of a global pandemic, and the post-Lockdown ‘new normal’ of remote working and online meetings, over the last three years Claudia has visited 50 cities in 35 countries across 6 continents. She kicks of the first week of her new term in Kuala Lumpur.
Claudia believes that whilst technology offers enormous benefits in facilitating remote and hybrid communication, even court sessions, meaning more people can be involved, in her own role a global community can only be achieved through local engagement, investment in time on the ground and face-to-face interactions.
- Claudia’s first term concluded with the launch a ground-breaking Report on The Truth about Cross-Border B2B Relationships, produced in collaboration with Jus Mundi’s Jus Connect and McCann Truth Central, providing new insights into how disputes should be approached in that context; and also the release of Court statistics from 2021 to 2023, highlighting a significant uptick in case fillings and offering insights into the evolving landscape of dispute resolution worldwide.
The Future – the next three years
- Claudia’s next term has a very full agenda:
- Launching a new Hearing Centre at the Court’s Paris headquarters
- Continuing to expand and deepen the Court’s global reach. In particular:
- strengthening its presence and engagement in Africa,
- and exploring further opportunities for expansion in Asia, Mainland China and India.
- Keeping client perspectives at the centre of the Court’s thinking and services design.
- Maintaining the Court’s focus on diversity and inclusion in arbitration, underscoring the Court’s dedication to fostering a diverse and representative body that reflects the global business community it serves.
- Continuing to explore what state-of-the-art technologies have to offer.
- In light of this busy agenda, the World Council has expanded the number of Vice Presidents and Court Members to assist Claudia with her work by electing 7 new Vice Presidents and a total of 121 new members, representing 84 countries. In line with the Court’s aim to expand its geographical reach and engagement on the ground, many of these appointments are in jurisdictions not previously well represented – Angola, Azerbaijan, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Moldova, Oman, Uganda, Uruguay and Zambia.
In electing these new members and Vice Presidents, the Council and the Court made a concerted effort to ensure geographic, gender and generational diversity within its membership:
- 35 members and Vice-Presidents are from Africa; 26 from Latin America; 61 from Asia-Pacific, 22 from the Middle East, 62 from Europe; and eight from Anglo-America.
- Women now represent approximately 51% of the Court, with 97 female and 94 male members.
- 16 of the incoming members and Vice Presidents were top representatives of the ICC Young Arbitration and ADR Forum (YAAF), underlining the importance of this community as a vital starting point for a career in arbitration.