On its sixth iteration, the Gaillard Lecture will feature Professor Sean D. Murphy, Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law, the George Washington University. 

The Gaillard Lecture is an itinerant lecture series in the memory of Professor Emmanuel Gaillard, a founding partner of our Firm. Prof. Gaillard was one of the most influential theorist and a leading global authority on international arbitration.

Previous lectures, all featuring eminent speakers, were held in Paris (Judge Dominique Hascher (2021) and Lord Hoffmann (2022)), London (Lord Neuberger (2023)), Cairo (French and Egyptian Supreme Court judges (2024)) and Rio de Janeiro (Toby Landau KC (2025)).

Prof. Murphy will address the “Effects of the ILC Articles on State Responsibility for Temporal Jurisdiction in International Arbitration”. In particular, he will delve into the appreciation of the principle of non-retroactivity by arbitral tribunals, discussing the application of the secondary rules found in the International Law Commission (ILC) Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (ARSIWA) on temporal issues prevalent in recent investor-State arbitrations, such as arbitral tribunals’  jurisdiction over breaches pre-dating the entry into force of the relevant bilateral investment treaty (BIT) or over breaches having a continuous or composite character.

The event is co-hosted by Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes and Harvard Law School International Legal Studies and will be held on Thursday 24 September at 6:00 pm in Wasserstein Hall at Harvard Law School. It will be followed by a cocktail reception.

To register, please click here.