The Conference started with a keynote speech by Professor Symeon Symeonides, a leading authority in private international law both in the US and in Europe. Professor Symeonides set the scene with his presentation on the history and present of the principle of party autonomy, namely, the freedom of the parties to choose the forum or the law under which their dispute will be decided.

The first day included two panels, with the first dealing with the issue of consent and the constitutional rights that may be waived or unintentionally relinquished through acts which are signified as manifesting such consent. This panel included presentations by Professors Nancy Kim and Gralf-Peter Calliess who both noted the importance of dispute resolution agreements as ‘gatekeeper’ or ‘reflexive’ clauses, having the potential to impact the autonomy of the individual, usually without their actual consent. The second panel dealt with the contractual understanding of consent and how standard form contracts pose challenges for identifying when an individual has agreed to a certain clause or term. This panel included many proposals for the potential abandonment of the current model in favor of a model that will be more tailored to the needs of each individual consenter. Professor Frederick Rieländer, Professor Daniel Barnhizer and Dr. Peter McColgan provided fascinating insights on the topic and a necessary forward-looking perspective in correcting the doctrinal issues that are raised.

The second day of the Conference dealt with each type of dispute resolution agreement. Three different panels took place beginning with the choice of law session, the choice of jurisdiction or courts and ending with the arbitration agreements session. The choice of law session included presentations from the American Law Institute reporter of the Conflict of Laws (Third) Restatement, Professor Kermit Roosevelt III, and associate reporter Professor Laura Little. This panel was followed by the panel on choice of jurisdiction agreements with presentations from esteemed experts in the field, Professors John Coyle, Hannah Buxbaum and Marta Pertegás Sender. The final and most controversial dispute resolution agreement/clause, the arbitration agreement, was dealt with by Professors Stephen Ware and Camelia Toader. The final session included a wrap-up and a comparative perspective of the discussions that took place by the conveners of the conference.

The papers of each of the contributors will appear in a Special Issue of the German Law Journal (Vol. 26, 2025). The Conference was sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the law firm GÖRG and the Conrad Naber Foundation.