Max Planck Lecture Series: Prof. Dr. Erik Franckx gave a lecture titled 'Position papers' by non-participating parties in arbitral proceedings
On June 28th, 2016, Prof. Erik Franckx illustrated a new tendency in arbitrations conducted under Annex VII of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
In his lecture, Prof. Franckx addressed the use of 'position papers' by non-participating respondent states in recent arbitral proceedings, focusing on the Philippines v. PRC Arbitration and the Arctic Sunrise Arbitration (Netherlands v. Russia).
In both cases parties chose not to appear before the Tribunal, but instead issued "position papers". These documents of uncertain legal value are intended to influence arbitrators/judges despite non-participation by respondents in the proceedings. Prof. Franckx linked the recent use of these papers in Annex VII arbitrations to the earlier practice of using informal communications in proceedings before the International Court of Justice.
Prof. Franckx provided a critical assessment of the impact of such informal communications through his analysis of the Arbitral Tribunals' treatment of 'position papers' in both cases.
The lecture was followed by a Q&A and a small reception.
