Expert Group on the Future Development of the Permanent Court of Arbitration

The Expert Group reflects on the PCA’s historical contributions, evaluates its contemporary relevance, and charts a strategic course for its future.

To commemorate the PCA’s 125th anniversary, the Administrative Council requested that the International Bureau constitute an Expert Group to reflect on the PCA’s historical contributions, evaluate its contemporary relevance, and chart a strategic course for its future. This initiative aims to ensure that the PCA remains at the forefront of international dispute resolution.

The Expert Group, convened by the Secretary-General, is tasked with assessing the PCA’s practices and developing forward-looking recommendations that uphold its foundational principles. Its objectives include:

• Assessment of Current Practices: The Expert Group will conduct a thorough evaluation of the PCA’s existing procedures and operations. This will include an examination of its approaches to arbitration, mediation, conciliation, and other dispute resolution mechanisms. The aim is to assess their effectiveness, efficiency, and alignment with the PCA’s foundational mission of promoting peaceful resolution of international disputes.

• Evaluation of Emerging Challenges and Opportunities: The Expert Group will analyse global developments—such as technological innovations, economic transformations, and shifting geopolitical landscapes—and evaluate their implications for the PCA’s mandate and operations. This assessment will identify key challenges and emerging opportunities to enhance the PCA’s relevance and responsiveness in an evolving international legal context.

• Development of Strategic Recommendations: The Expert Group will formulate targeted proposals to strengthen the PCA’s institutional framework. These recommendations will aim to enhance the PCA’s operational efficiency, broaden accessibility, and increase its capacity to address diverse and complex dispute resolution needs, ensuring the PCA remains at the forefront of international dispute settlement.

• Innovation in Dispute Settlement Mechanisms: The Expert Group will explore opportunities to expand and improve the PCA’s role in fostering international peace and cooperation. This includes identifying and recommending innovative approaches, mechanisms, and rules that address contemporary and future challenges while preserving the PCA’s foundational principles of impartiality, independence, and adaptability.

Composition of the Expert Group

Professor Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler and Sir Daniel Bethlehem KC serve as the Co-Chairs of the Expert Group. In addition to the Co-Chairs, the Expert Group comprises 15 other members, serving in their personal capacities, and representing a balanced cross-section of geographical regions, genders, cultures, and legal systems:

Members of the Expert Group – Biographies

Working Methods

The Co-Chairs will lead the Expert Group, providing strategic direction, fostering effective collaboration among members, and ensuring the Group’s deliberations are coherent, and aligned with its objectives. Under the directions of the Co-Chairs, the Expert Group will conduct its work through a combination of in-person and virtual meetings, and correspondence, to ensure effective collaboration and thorough deliberations.

Additional consultations with external experts, stakeholders, or specialised practitioners may be organised to incorporate diverse perspectives and expertise into the Expert Group’s work. The International Bureau of the PCA will act as the secretariat of the Expert Group, providing comprehensive administrative, logistical, and research support.

The Expert Group will strive to achieve consensus in its recommendations to ensure collective ownership of its outcomes. In instances where consensus cannot be reached, the Co-Chairs will exercise their authority to finalise reports and recommendations, as well as working procedures and decisions, of the Expert Group, safeguarding the Expert Group’s objectives and maintaining progress.

Reports and Recommendations

The Co-Chairs will produce to the Secretary-General by the end of 2025 an Interim Report addressing progress in the work of the Expert Group and providing preliminary conclusions or other updates as may be appropriate. At the request of the Secretary-General, the Co-Chairs may be invited to provide an oral interim update on the work of the Expert Group to the Administrative Council.

Under the control of the Co-Chairs, the Expert Group will submit a Final Report to the Secretary-General in the course of 2026 addressing the PCA’s practices and making actionable forward-looking recommendations to uphold and advance the PCA’s foundational principles.

Under the control of the Co-Chairs, the Interim and Final Reports shall be reports of the Expert Group as a whole, without reference to the separate views of any of its members. Any member of the Expert Group who dissents from a report, or any part thereof, may request that such dissent be noted in the report in question in terms to be agreed with the Co-Chairs.

The Secretary-General of the PCA will formally present the report and recommendations to the Administrative Council to facilitate their integration into the Council’s deliberations and decisions.