Leadership, Legitimacy, Legacy: A Tribute to Alexis Mourre

It was a pleasure and privilege for me to have served as Director of arbitration and ADR for North Asia under Alexis' presidentship at the ICC Court.

Alexis first impressed me as a real thought leader. Practitioners and users have been talking about the disadvantages and challenges in arbitration practices during the past decades. However, Alexis wisely pointed out the role of international arbitration as an autonomous and largely self-regulated transnational system of justice, not only in the regulation of the global economy but in the very functioning of society as a whole. This perfectly answered the questions of why transparency, ethics and diversity had become so important for the legitimacy of international arbitration as a system of justice.

Second, Alexis exhibited strong leadership, under which the ICC Court has paved its way to becoming a better, modernised global institution with rich traditions. Under his leadership, a series of revolutionary mechanisms were introduced to the ICC Arbitration Rules to effectively address the demands for transparency, ethics, efficiency, diversity, etc. from the practitioners and users of international arbitration.

Last but certainly not least, I utmost respect Alexis for being an honourable person when he decided to apply the two-term rule on himself, despite the strong desire in the community for him to continue serving as the ICC Court's President for an additional term to take the same to an even higher level. In order to bring diversity and fresh minds to the ICC Court, he reinforced the application of the rule that no member shall serve on the ICC Court for more than two terms. He applied this rule to himself without any hesitation because he respects the rule of law and takes the long-term interest of the ICC Court and the international arbitration community as a guiding principle. This sets up a real role model for everyone on the ICC Court and brought his term to an end with pride.

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