During his six-year tenure as President of the ICC Court, Alexis
Mourre has reshaped the ICC Court into a highly efficient,
transparent and effective arbitral institution that provides
unparalleled dispute resolution services. His tenure will likely be
remembered for his significant contributions in a number of key
areas: (i) establishing a higher level of ethics for arbitrators in
terms of their disclosure obligations, among other things; (ii)
introducing transparency measures in relation to publishing the
composition of all tribunals, and providing procedures to provide
reasons for decisions on challenges or prima facie jurisdictional
matters or consolidations; and (iii) improving efficiency by
imposing sanctions on arbitrators who deliver late awards, and by
introducing expedited arbitration rules.
But Alexis Mourre's most remarkable contribution during his
tenure, in my humble opinion, is achieving gender parity on the ICC
Court. Alexis strived towards gender parity and settled for nothing
less, at a time where the global conversation around gender
diversity reflected, at best, the notion that ‘we need more women'.
By establishing gender parity on the Court, Alexis Mourre put an
end ‘to the unjustifiable male dominance in ICC arbitration', to
put it in his own words. Alexis didn't stop there. He also worked
towards establishing more diverse tribunals in ICC arbitrations,
not only on the basis of gender but also on regional and
generational bases. It would have taken many more years to achieve
such goals had there not been a deliberate and persistent effort to
attain them. That a man pushed for gender parity before the first
woman took the helm as President of the ICC Court speaks volumes of
the ICC Court as an institution, and what it stands for. It is on
this leading trajectory that the new President of the ICC Court,
Claudia Salomon, will undoubtedly make her mark.
It has been an honour working alongside Alexis on the ICC Court
as well as
