Professor Rogers speaks on problems in Asian arbitration at Penn Law symposium

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Catherine A. Rogers, professor of law and the Paul and Marjorie Price Faculty Scholar at Penn State Law, spoke at the University of Pennsylvania Law School on Feb. 10 as part of the Asian Law Review’s annual symposium.

This year’s symposium, entitled “Issues in Arbitration in Asia: The Arbitral Landscape After the South China Sea Arbitration,” explored the legal and geopolitical ramifications of Philippines v. China, in which an arbitral tribunal at The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines, finding that China had no territorial rights based on the “nine-dash line” under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Rogers spoke on a panel examining the “Differing Perspectives on Problems in Contemporary Asian Arbitration.” Her remarks focused on regulatory innovations in Asia that are inspired by competition to attract international arbitration business and relate to professional ethics. For example, Singapore has attracted more international arbitrations by passing important legislation to allow foreign attorneys to appear in local arbitrations, while Thailand’s and India’s more restrictive approaches have resulted in a competitive disadvantage. More recently, Singapore and Hong Kong have passed seminal legislation legalizing third-party funding in international arbitration.

Joining Rogers on the panel were Patrick M. Norton, an arbitrator and mediator with JAMS, and Christopher K. Tahbaz, partner and co-chair of Asian Litigation with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. Other speakers included Jacques de Lisle, professor of law at Penn Law; Isaac Kardon, assistant professor of Chinese politics & law at the U.S. Naval War College; Oliver Lewis, lead attorney adviser in the U.S. State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser; Andrew Loewenstein, partner at Foley Hoag LLP; and Suisheng (Sam) Zhao, professor of Chinese politics at the University of Denver.

In addition to her position at Penn State Law, Rogers serves as professor of ethics, regulation & the rule of law and director of the Institute for Ethics, Regulation & the Rule of Law at Queen Mary University of London. She is co-chair of the ICCA-Queen Mary Task Force on Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration and a reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law, the U.S. Law of International Commercial Arbitration. Rogers is the founder of Arbitrator Intelligence, an NGO that aims to increase fairness, transparency and accountability in the arbitrator selection process, and increased diversity in arbitrator appointments.