NEWS
AUWCL Celebrates 20 Years of Its Center on International Commercial Arbitration
Twenty years ago, AUWCL launched a bold vision: to establish a center dedicated to one of the fastest growing and most influential areas of global legal practice.
Two decades later, the Center on International Commercial Arbitration has become one of our nation’s most recognized arbitration programs, shaping scholarship, training, practice and the next generation of leaders in the field.
“Arbitration has become the preferred method for resolving business-to-business disputes,” said Horacio Grigera Naón, director of the Center on International Commercial Arbitration. “More than two decades ago, the Washington College of Law had the vision to anticipate this shiſt and establish the Center on International Commercial Arbitration. Today, the Center offers one of the world’s most comprehensive and distinguished arbitration curricula, serving lawyers from jurisdictions across the globe.”
The Center has never been a single-track operation. It offers an LL.M. in International Arbitration and Business Law in both in-person and online formats, alongside professional certificate courses, a Summer Institute, and a Practical Seminar built for arbitrators. The Center has also partnered with other WCL programs, for example most recently to launch a Certificate in Construction Law &
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Dispute Resolution. Scholarships through the Organization of American States have helped open doors for students from across the Western Hemisphere, reflecting the Center’s genuinely global outlook.
One of the Center’s distinguishing features is the focus on the practice side of arbitration. Its Annual Lecture, bi-annual Symposium, and moot competitions in both English and Spanish have made it a consistent meeting point for leading scholars and practitioners working through the field’s hardest questions. A recent co-hosted celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Federal Arbitration Act is a good example of the kind of convening the Center does well.
That reputation starts at the top. Director Grigera Naón brings decades of experience as an independent international arbitrator and former secretary general of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce. A board of globally respected practitioners rounds out the leadership.
The results speak for themselves. More than 1,000 alumni are now working across international law and arbitration worldwide, and AUWCL holds a fourth-place in national ranking in international law from U.S. News and World Report for 2026-27. Two decades in, the Center remains one of the most compelling reasons to study international law at AUWCL. — By Brice Helms
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