Christina Hioureas will be speaking at a panel on “Arbitrating Consent in Contract Disputes with States and State-Owned Entities” during the 38th Annual ITA Workshop and Annual Meeting.

Arbitrations involving States and state-owned entities raise sensitive questions of consent because they are subject to constitutional, administrative, and public law constraints that may affect their authority to arbitrate. This panel will examine disputes arising where arbitration clauses intersect with changing government policies or state interference in investor–SOE relationships. Using LCIA-administered cases to illustrate how questions of State and SOE consent are handled in practice, the panel will take a comparative perspective on how different legal systems reconcile consent with public law constraints.

The theme for this year’s ITA Workshop is The Fragile Foundations of International Arbitration: Consent Contested, Capacity Questioned, Legitimacy at Stake. Consent is the bedrock of international arbitration, yet it is now under significant strain. In both commercial and investment arbitration, fundamental questions about who actually agreed to arbitrate, what they agreed to arbitrate, and how that agreement is interpreted, limited or expanded keep resurfacing. Corporate groups, shareholders, funders, and affiliates are increasingly drawn into proceedings despite never signing an arbitration agreement. States withdraw from or reshape treaties, resist consent in contracts, and challenge the jurisdiction of tribunals to resolve disputes touching on sovereignty-related issues. Meanwhile, proposals such as a multilateral investment court seek to replace or reframe consent entirely. Click-wrap, browse-wrap, and AI-generated terms test whether consent formed online is really consent. And domestic courts diverge on how these issues are reviewed when arbitration agreements or awards come up for enforcement, straining the predictability of the entire enterprise.

All of this has the potential to raise legitimacy concerns: if arbitration is no longer clearly rooted in the voluntary agreement of the parties, can it still be trusted as a dispute resolution mechanism? By examining consent across all stages of arbitration and taking a comparative approach across jurisdictions, the 2026 ITA Workshop will address whether arbitration can adapt to modern realities without losing the legitimacy and party autonomy that have long made it attractive.