About the Co-Chairs’ Circle (CCC)

The Co-Chairs’ Circle is an informal platform for the exchange between young arbitration practitioner groups. Currently, 30 young arbitration practitioner groups participate in the Co-Chairs’ Circle.

More and more groups are founded throughout the world by young lawyers practicing in international arbitration. Most of them operate under the auspices of an arbitral institution, an arbitration association or an institute.

The young generation takes an active interest in shaping the future of international arbitration. Many young arbitration practitioners worldwide are dedicated to building their own practice. This development relates both to international commercial arbitration and investment arbitration.

Given the continued proliferation of young arbitration practitioner groups, it was time to create an informal platform for Co-Chairs across the organizations to meet and exchange ideas about topics they consider relevant, to jointly reflect on current trends and to team up in order to have a stronger impact as the young voice of the international community.

The first global conference of the Co-Chairs’ Circle, co-hosted by DIS40 (the under-40 group of the German Arbitration Institute) and Humboldt-University, took place in Berlin, Germany in 2014 and looked at cultural differences in international arbitration. The fully booked conference was attended by 150 young arbitration practitioners from 25 countries.

The second global conference took place in Helsinki, Finland in 2016 and was hosted by YACF (Young Arbitration Club Finland). The conference focused on controversy in international arbitration.

The third global conference took place in Rome, Italy and was hosted by ARBIT (Italian Forum for Arbitration and ADR).

The fourth global conference took place in Brussels, Belgium in 2022 and was hosted by CEPANI40. The topic of the conference was “Legitimacy in and of Arbitration”.