Why study International Dispute Resolution? A Q&A with the Programme Directors

Hear from our Programme Co-Directors and international dispute resolution experts about the benefits of studying arbitration at master's level.

Dr. Remy Gerbay and Miss Nora Gallagher are Programme Co-Directors for the part-time International Dispute Resolution LLM at Queen Mary Online. 

We spoke to Remy and Nora about the benefits of studying the LLM, including the reputation of The School of International Arbitration, networking opportunities throughout the programme, and how the degree can help you progress in your career. 

Why should you study International Dispute Resolution with Queen Mary?  

Nora: The School of International Arbitration that's based at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies was the first dedicated Institute to teach the discipline of international dispute resolution.  

There are other institutions that now teach arbitration specifically and there's many universities globally that offer certain modules in commercial arbitration, mediation or investment dispute resolution.  

However, we were one of the first and we’d like to think that we're one of the best. We've been doing this quite a long time and we have a lot of experience. We have a growing number of alumni, and I think that factor does set us apart.  

Remy: The School of International Arbitration at Queen Mary, University of London is the oldest and largest academic institution dedicated to the study and research of international arbitration. It’s been often copied but never equaled, we'd like to believe.  

One of the things that really distinguishes the teaching of arbitration at our school from other programmes is the fact that we take an international and comparative approach to the study of international arbitration. For example, when we study international commercial arbitration, we do not focus exclusively on English law.  

Of course, we cover English law, the English Arbitration Act of 1996 and the case law. However, every week we also study court decisions and statutes from other jurisdictions, such as Asia, Africa and North America. In fact, our student body very much reflects this diversity.  

We look at court decisions from all over the world, and I think that really is a distinguishing feature. I don't think any of the other international arbitration programmes take this comparative approach to international arbitration.  

Can you tell us more about the modules? 

Remy: We have two commercial arbitration modules which you take sequentially. In the first commercial arbitration module, we give you a full introduction to international arbitration, and we cover issues such as the consent to arbitrate arbitration agreements, the procedure, constitutional arbitration tribunals, all the way to the enforcement of the rules. 

In the second commercial arbitration module we dig deeper into some of the more complicated issues in international arbitration. We look at issues of evidence for example, and privilege. We build upon what we've learned in the first module.  

Now, the way we've designed this course on commercial arbitration is that we cater both for students who already have extensive knowledge of international arbitration and students who are new to it. Somebody who is brand new to arbitration will be able to gradually acquire the required knowledge on the topic.  

But individuals who have been practicing in law firms for many years, and we have a lot of students like that, are also getting a lot out of the first and second modules because we build advanced readings into our modules.  

Nora: The two investment modules are a growing area since I started, when there was only one or two investment treaty arbitrations filed at ICSID, which is the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington DC. Now it could be 40 or 50, 60 a year and that's just at ICSID.  

We look very closely at the background and evolution of the investment treaty arbitration process, which is what they call a mixed arbitration, where you have either an individual or a company that is upset at the treatment it has received by a host state.  

We look at what makes ICSID arbitration unique, because it's obviously set up by treaty and it has an annulment process, which is completely different to the New York Convention, which you will have learned about from the enforcement of commercial awards.  

And then the second module goes into a lot of detail on the specifics of those substantive protections provided in these treaties.  

We're always updating the material. We're looking now at treaties that are being signed today that have a completely different focus and a lot of additional requirements and obligations both on states, and they're even trying to impose ESG obligations on investors.  

We're predicting that this may change the type of investment dispute that we'll see in the future, but we run through all those standard protections.  

We also look at state defenses. And again, this is an area where we've seen significant change, even within the last three years. There's been much more willingness of states to take up a counterclaim against an investor, for say, breach of national environmental laws. And some of those have been upheld by tribunals.  

Some very interesting changes and developments are being made both by states and the type of treaties that they're going into, as well as the willingness of tribunals to grapple with issues such as human rights.  

What are the networking opportunities like with the academic team and other students? 

Nora: Our teaching team are super, they're very experienced, they've worked in both commercial and investment arbitration and they're very active in that kind of online discussion platform.  

Remy: Individuals who have been in arbitration truly understand what it is that they're talking about. The quality of our associate lecturers is quite incredible.  

Some of our students are new to arbitration, but some others have been practicing for a long time.  

Every year we have individuals who have practiced arbitration for many years but want to become full time arbitrators and stop working as counsel, as partners in law firms.  

We have very senior partners in big law firms in Singapore and elsewhere. You can therefore imagine the quality of the discussions we see.  

By participating in the weekly webinars, even though you're not flying to London and you're connecting from wherever you're located, you're able to network with individuals like yourself who are studying on this programme.  

Get the tools required to succeed in the field of arbitration. Study part-time and 100% online:

How will an LLM degree help me prepare for a career in my field? 

Remy: I think the answer depends on a number of factors, including where you are already in your career and what you want to do with it. What I can say is that every year we have students who are both junior and senior lawyers who decide to do this, and they do it for different reasons because they want to get different things out of it in their careers.  

Often, junior lawyers who have recently finished their undergraduate law degree, decide to do an arbitration course like ours because they want to gain specialist knowledge in the field and to start building credibility as young budding arbitration lawyers. And the idea is that it will help them become more employable, get a better job in whatever jurisdiction they're placed.  

And, for the lawyers that are already working as young associates in law firms, there is the perception that doing a specialist degree in arbitration will help them build credibility within their firms. They can then have first dibs when it comes to being allocated to international arbitration matters and become the specialists in their firms. So that's the junior lawyers. 

Every year, we have several senior lawyers who have been practicing as litigators and/or arbitration counsel, and they want to become full time arbitrators when they retire or as a new stage of their career. Most senior lawyers typically do the course because they need this theoretical understanding of arbitration in order to move into a more specialist career in this field.  

Can you practice arbitration without previous experience as counsel?  

Remy: In the world of arbitration, there's a lot of different jobs.  

You've got the arbitrators who are deciding the disputes. You've got the lawyers - the counsel who are representing the parties in front of the arbitrators. You've got damages experts who are going to help the lawyers present their case. You've got people working for arbitral institutions who are administering the arbitration proceedings. You've got people doing research and teaching and arbitration. You've got lawyers who specialise in disputes in some very large in-house legal departments.  

It all depends on what you want to do with your career. Most people who work in arbitration, though, tend to work as counsel and they’re representing parties that are involved in international arbitration proceedings.  

It also depends on what country you're based in. In England, for example, you would typically either be a solicitor or barrister. As a solicitor, you'd be preparing the case for the hearing. As a barrister, you would be involved in a more discrete capacity to give legal advice, strategic advice, and to perform the oral advocacy at the hearing. 

If you're based in America or Canada, you would typically be an associate in a law firm, and then you would become a partner in the law firm. You would be representing the parties.  

You do have individuals more and more who are specialist arbitration lawyers, people like me who started their careers very much in arbitration and have done arbitration their whole career. But that's fairly new and it depends on the country you're based in.  

It’s not uncommon in certain jurisdictions for people to really be litigators who are going to specialise maybe in construction disputes and energy disputes and who are going to do arbitration as part of their work.  

Nora: I myself started when I left Ireland and was given a chance in finance. I learned a lot about the movement of money and financing, which is very useful in arbitration. No work experience, in my opinion, is ever lost. 

Thank you to Dr Remy Gerbay and Miss Nora Gallagher for sharing their insights into the LLM! 

If you’re looking to rethink traditional approaches to conflict and its resolution, find out more about Queen Mary Online’s part-time International Dispute Resolution LLM: