Paris Arbitration Week 2026 — Sanctions, Arbitration, and Cross-Border Enforcement: Complex Intersections in Practice

We were delighted to host a dynamic group of practitioners and industry leaders for an afternoon of insightful discussions on the evolving interplay between sanctions regimes, international arbitration, and cross-border enforcement.

A special thank you to our moderators, Sara Susnjar and Suzanne Labi, and to our outstanding panelists, including Michael Stepek, Alice Flacco, Kate Siebke, Oliver Powell KC, Henry Reid, Sophie O'Sullivan, Matthew C. Bate, Ben Bruton, Daria Plakhova-Freshville, and Sebastián Mejía García for sharing their expertise and practical perspectives.

Key takeaways from the discussions:

• Sanctions regimes are increasingly shaping arbitration strategy, from jurisdictional considerations to procedural choices.
• The interaction between treaty obligations and public international law requires careful navigation in high-stakes disputes.
• In-house counsel must act quickly to assess the risk sanctions pose in real time, when it comes to compliance and disputes.
•  Post-award success depends on a multi-jurisdictional enforcement strategy, leveraging tools such as U.S. discovery (including Section 1782).
• Effective asset tracing and recovery demands early coordination between legal, investigative, and enforcement teams.

We were also pleased to continue the conversation informally during the cocktail reception, which was an excellent opportunity to connect with peers across the arbitration community.