The College of Law at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU Law) recently teamed up with the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BICCL) to launch a new book, International Commercial Courts: The Future of Transnational Adjudication (Cambridge University Press 2022), co-edited by  HBKU Law’s Georgios Dimitropoulos, Associate Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and Stavros Brekoulakis, Professor of International Arbitration at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), School of Law.  

The book is the first to provide a comprehensive analysis of international commercial courts in relation to international and domestic courts and tribunals. It offers insights into the role, importance, and place of international commercial courts in the field of international adjudication from a comparative perspective.  The topic is particularly relevant to Qatar given the important role that the Qatar International Court and Dispute Resolution Centre (QICDRC), (international commercial court) plays in resolving disputes related to the Qatar Financial Centre as well as other commercial units in Qatar.    

Academics and practitioners from different jurisdictions offered theoretical and practical insights into their respective chapters. Contributors to the book from HBKU Law include Professor Dimitropoulos, Professors Ilias Bantekas and Zachary R. Calo, and Dean Susan Karamanian. The collective contributions demonstrate HBKU Law’s role in addressing contemporary challenges with a future-oriented view while also fostering research connections.  The book also includes a foreword from Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales and President of the QICDRC, and a chapter from the former QICDRC Registrar, Hon. Christopher Grout, and Sir William Blair, a judge on the QICDRC.   

The book considers the evolution of the international court model and how, at a time when current scholarly and academic debates evolve around the role of law in the post-globalization era, new international commercial courts can bridge concerns about diminished sovereignty versus the necessity of globalizing dispute resolution. In this regard, international commercial courts present themselves as a model for the future of adjudication.

The distinguished launch event featured remarks by Dean Karamanian and Dr. Spyros Maniatis, Director of BIICL. A panel discussion with high-level experts examined the role of international commercial courts in the field of international adjudication, with analysis by Professors Dimitropoulos and Brekoulakis. The panel was chaired by Sir William Blair.

International Commercial Courts: The Future of Transnational Adjudication is published by Cambridge University Press as part of its “Studies on International Courts and Tribunals” Series.  It is the product of an international conference that HBKU Law hosted in 2018, which was partially funded by the Qatar National Research Fund.  More details about the book are here.