Stephen Bate of ArbDB Chambers, attended the ICC Arbitration Conference held on 14th October 2026. The theme was ‘Dispute Resolution in a Geopolitical World’.

Here are Stephen’s reflections: There were three sessions: the first was a panel discussion addressing the potential fracturing of international arbitration from the challenges of sanctions, armed conflict, investment screening, economic fragmentation and technological competition - with resulting issues for tribunal neutrality, payment of fees, public policy arguments affecting award enforceability, and for procedural efficiency. The panel examined how courts, arbitral institutions and practitioners across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific have been responding to these developments. A second panel discussion addressed how geopolitical risk for international business is making companies rethink how they manage disputes across jurisdictions. Legal departments are increasingly balancing legal risk with commercial priorities while responding to sanctions, regulatory divergence, supply chain disruption and emerging technologies. In-house lawyers from oil and mining companies were on the panel and gave fascinating insights into their work in these areas. The highlight of the conference was an address by Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice in England and Wales. His topic was machine-based decisions and the approach likely to be taken by differing jurisdictions. He told the audience to look at the horizon. Machine-based decisions are coming and were already here, citing eBay’s use of machine-based decisions for its consumer disputes. Sir Geoffrey cited his recent visit to China and how hundreds of thousands of civil decisions are made by judges using AI, stating - ‘8. I .. visited the Shenzhen Intermediate Peoples’ Court in September 2026. There, an AI-powered platform has been developed that allows AI to assist the judge by distilling the important points to be derived from the evidence, listing the issues that the machine thinks need to be decided in order to determine the case, and providing drafts of the reasons and order that the judge might want to provide to explain and encapsulate their decision. One judge told us that she could, using the system, do 6 cases in the time she had previously taken to do one. 9. After my visit, the Shenzhen judges provided me with a copy of their White Paper describing the system they are using. Let me be clear, the system is remarkable. First, it is a single system for all types of civil case, which is something I had always thought would be difficult to achieve. Secondly, it is based on entirely digital machine-readable files that include every aspect of each case and access to relevant legal materials. Thirdly, it provides the judge with the opportunity to refer quickly to the originals of all those materials. Fourthly, it provides, the judges say, for both data security and hallucination protections.’ Theses quotes are from the speech as also delivered by Sir Geoffrey at the Legal Geek conference Speech by the Master of the Rolls: Legal Geek Conference - Courts and Tribunals Judiciary It’s a compelling read …. Stephen Bate https://www.judiciary.uk/speech-by-the-master-of-the-rolls-legal-geek-conference/ Stephen can be contacted for appointments as arbitrator or mediator through the Clerk to ArbDB Chambers, Martin Poulter, martin.poulter@arbdb.com and tel: +44 (0)203 514 9020