Ciarb meets DIS: Guide on Drafting a Bulletproof Arbitral Award”, the first “DIS meets” event took place on 25 November 2025. Hosted in Frankfurt, the event brought a topic closely tied to the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Ciarb) to Germany. More than 450 people registered to attend the event in person or remotely, including individuals from Germany and around the world.
These newly established events are designed to partner with other institutions or associations for twin events, one in Germany with a partner topic, and one abroad with a DIS topic.
Jens-Daniel Braun, who presides over the arbitration senate (and a senate of the newly established Commercial Court Frankfurt) at the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court, kicked off the event with his keynote speech. He discussed the formal requirements for an arbitral award, including whether “signature could not be obtained” sufficiently states the reason for an omitted signature under the award (it does, according to the German Federal Court of Justice). He mentioned the substantive requirements for reviewing arbitral awards, such as the right to be heard and arbitral awards that violate sanctions and antitrust law. Jens-Daniel Braun also questioned the usual length of the procedural history sections in arbitral awards.
In his keynote speech, Reinmar Wolff (DIS) distinguished factors that make an award bulletproof (the absence of grounds for setting aside and the sufficient specificity of the operative part, as well as the reasons usually contained in award checklists) from those that make it a good award, namely clarity and precision as well as transparent reasoning. The timeliness of an award does not make it “good,” while a lack of timeliness can render an award “not good” regardless of its content (justice delayed is justice denied).
A panel of speakers from civil and common law jurisdictions including Hartmut Hamann (Hamann Rechtsanwälte), George Lambrou (Keystone Law), Phillip Landolt (Landolt & Koch, Ciarb), Tanya Landon (Landon Arbitration) and Karl Pörnbacher (Hogan Lovells) discussed best practices in arbitral award drafting. Moderated by Natalia Gulyaeva (Hogan Lovells), the discussion covered the length of the procedural history section in the award, the ideal length of the reasoning, technological assistance, the drafting process in a three-member tribunal, tactical considerations for young arbitrators during deliberations, how sole arbitrators can seek feedback, the role of the institution, AI assistance in award drafting and tips for drafting the perfect arbitral award.
The audience actively engaged in the discussion, raising several questions about all topics. Thank you to Ciarb’s European Branch, to the speakers and to the audience to for having made this first “DIS meets” event such a success!
Reinmar Wolff