Methodology
The research for this study was conducted from September 2024 to March 2025 by the School of International Arbitration (SIA), QMUL. Dr. Thomas Lehmann was the White & Case Postdoctoral Research Associate at the SIA Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London. The academic leads (investigators) of the project were Norah Gallagher, Director, SIA, and Dr. Maria Fanou, Director of the Comparative and International Dispute Resolution (CIDR) LLM Programme at the SIA. An external focus group composed of senior in-house counsel, private practitioners, arbitrators, academics and senior representatives of arbitral institutions provided valuable feedback on the draft questionnaire.
The research was conducted in two phases: the first quantitative and the second qualitative.
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Phase 1: An online questionnaire of 28 questions (of which 18 were substantive in nature) was completed by 2402 respondents between 8 October 2024 and 21 December 2024.
Views were sought from a wide range of users of arbitration globally, with all interested stakeholders able to participate. The respondent group consisted of private practitioners (35%), full-time arbitrators (17%), practitioners who split their time equally between acting as arbitrators and counsel (14%), arbitral institution staff (9%), academics (8%), in-house counsel from the private sector and government entities (7% and 3%, respectively), tribunal secretaries, experts (over 1% each), and other professional roles.
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Respondents were invited to identify the geographic region(s) in which they principally practise or operate. Respondents could choose multiple regions. 47% of respondents included Asia-Pacific as a region in which they principally practise or operate, followed by Europe with 21%, North America with 10%, and the Middle East with 9%, while the Caribbean / Latin America and Africa represented 7% and 6% of selections, respectively.
In terms of experience, more than 73% of all respondents stated they have been personally involved in more than three arbitrations in the past five years. More experienced or frequent users involved in 11 to 30 arbitration cases in the past five years make up 18% of respondents, and 17% of respondents have been involved in more than 30 arbitration cases in the past five years.
The questionnaire responses were analysed using data analytics methods to generate the statistics presented in this report. A reference to 'respondents' in the report refers to those respondents who answered that particular question. Each of the substantive questions was answered by more than 82% of respondents. Due to rounding up/down of individual figures, the aggregate of the percentages shown in some charts may not equal 100%.
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Phase 2: 117 in-person, video or telephone interviews, ranging from 15 to 90 minutes, were conducted between October 2024 and March 2025. The qualitative information gathered during the interviews was used to supplement the quantitative questionnaire data. It nuanced and further explained the findings on particular issues covered in the survey. Interviewees were based in 37 countries and 45 cities across all continents (except Antarctica). The pool of interviewees reflected all categories across the diverse respondent group. Interviewees were primarily contacted on the basis of their consent in the questionnaire, while a few contacted us directly requesting an interview.
The following charts illustrate the composition of the respondent pool by primary role; geographic region of primary practise or operation; industry in which they or their organisation operate; and experience in international arbitration.
View full image: Chart 23: What is your primary role? (PDF)
View full image: Chart 24: Over the past five years, approximately how many international arbitrations have you been involved in? (PDF)
View full image: Chart 25: Industry in which you or your organisation operates (PDF)
View full image: Chart 26: In which region(s) do you principally practise or operate (PDF)
School of International Arbitration, Queen Mary University of London
The SIA was established by Professor Julian Lew in 1985 within the Centre for Commercial Law Studies. The SIA was an innovation at that time. SIA was the world's first (and only till the late 1990s) dedicated institute to teach and research international dispute resolution as a distinct academic discipline. It offers a wide range of modules taught by a faculty of full-time and part-time academics that are leading experts in the field. SIA adopts a comparative approach looking at arbitration developments across a range of jurisdictions. SIA has a recognised reputation globally (and typically ranks in the top 5 in the world) and continues to attract excellent students to London, Paris and the DL LLM programmes. Today the School is acknowledged as a global leading postgraduate teaching and research centre in international dispute resolution. It has become a centre of excellence for research and teaching of international dispute resolution. It attracts some of the best students with an interest in arbitration globally each year. Students are provided both theoretical and practical training on all aspects of international dispute resolution from advocacy & negotiation skills to enforcement of arbitral awards.
Since its establishment, more than 4,000 students from more than 110 countries have graduated from the SIA. More than 70 PhD students have successfully completed their doctoral studies. Many of our graduates are now successfully practicing arbitration around the world as advocates, in-house counsel, academics and arbitrators. Others serve international organisations, including UNCITRAL, the World Bank and UNCTAD, or work for major arbitration institutions.
The SIA is located in Queen Mary's postgraduate law centre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, the centre of legal London. Its key location facilitates support from the international arbitration community for our students including professional events, internships and mentoring. In addition to the London programme, the dispute resolution LLM is taught in Paris as well as online for our Distance Learning students. There is an active and growing alumni group across all of our programmes.
The School's goals are:
Research: To produce leading scholarship that advances the intellectual and theoretical development of the discipline of international dispute resolution.
Education: To offer rigorous and innovative programmes for the global education of future generations of international dispute resolution lawyers.
Professional engagement: To engage with international dispute resolution practice and professional institutions and organisations. This includes our cocurricular practitioner seminars and the popular annual SIA & Freshfields lecture.
Impact: To offer consulting services and advice to governments and non-governmental agencies that wish to develop a non-judicial dispute resolution mechanisms, as well as executive training for lawyers in private practice, in-house lawyers, judges, arbitrators and mediators.
For further information, please visit the SIA's website: www.arbitration.qmul.ac.uk.
Any enquiries shall be directed to ccls-arbitration@qmul.ac.uk.
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