Every two years, the German Arbitration Institute (DIS) honours the late Professor Dr. Karl-Heinz Böckstiegel, Honorary Chairman of the DIS, with a lecture named after him. The lecture series provides a platform for distinguished speakers to share their insights and engage in meaningful discourse.
Professor Böckstiegel gave a seminal presentation on ‘Public Policy and Arbitrability’ at the ICCA Congress in New York in 1986. He concluded that the leitmotiv should be: as much state involvement as necessary, but as little as possible. It is timely to review the approach of courts and tribunals to issues of arbitrability over the past forty years.
It is also timely to reflect on the suitability of traditional arbitration for certain types of disputes, especially where there is a public interest element, such as cases involving states or state-owned enterprises, or where an individual is a party, such as in sports arbitration, and to consider whether there has been a reassessment of the scope of arbitrability.
8th Karl-Heinz Böckstiegel Lecture 2026
Public Policy and Arbitrability Revisited
Date: 29 September 2026, 5.00 - 6.30 pm
Venue: Grand Hyatt Berlin, Marlene-Dietrich-Platz 2, 10785 Berlin
The lecture will be delivered by
Audley Sheppard KC, is President of ICCA. He is a former Chair of the Board and a Vice-president of the Court of the LCIA, Member on the ICC International Court of Arbitration and Arbitration Commission, Rapporteur of the ILA Arbitration Committee, and Co-chair of the IBA Arbitration Committee. He is Chair of the Board of Sport Resolutions, and a Director of BIICL. Audley is a member of Twenty Essex, London, before which he was a partner of Clifford Chance, where he was the co-Head of the International Arbitration group. Audley is a full-time arbitrator with extensive experience of major disputes arising out of infrastructure and energy projects, and international trade and investment.
For further information please refer to the invitation. Participation in this event is free of charge.
The Karl-Heinz Böckstiegel Lecture will take place as part of the Berlin Dispute Resolution Days before the gala dinner of the DIS Autumn Conference 2026.
Registration
Please register by 16 September 2026 via the link below. By registering you accept the DIS General Terms and Conditions for Conferences and Workshops.