The Council for International Dispute Resolution of the Kingdom of Bahrain hosted a high-level roundtable, "Neutral Justice - Reimagining Justice in BRICS and Brokering Peaceful Commerce," at Riyadh International Disputes Week 2026 (RIDW26), on Tuesday, 3 February. The session brought together senior international figures to examine how shifting dispute settlement frameworks are reshaping commerce and investor confidence across BRICS and BRICS-plus economies.
The panel included Ms. Anna Joubin-Bret, Secretary of The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), and Ms. Teresa Cheng, Secretary-General of the International Organization for Mediation (IOMed), and was moderated by Professor Marike Patrani Paulsson, Vice Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution and Secretary-General of the Council for International Dispute Resolution of the Kingdom of Bahrain. Discussions tapped into geopolitics, BRICS dynamics, and systemic shifts, and examined how the rule of law was intended to provide a stable framework amidst these waves. Critical questions were raised on how such movements shape multilateral, regional, and bilateral negotiations.
More importantly, the panel considered how those present, as gatekeepers of the rule of law, should act in this environment: should mediation and negotiation be promoted more than before, and how this might be done in practice; whether this is the moment for States to legislate to address bottlenecks in dispute resolution; or whether soft-law instruments offer a more effective path forward. These reflections framed neutral justice as both a legal and policy challenge central to the future of cross-border trade and investment.
By convening this dialogue in Riyadh, the Council for International Dispute Resolution underscored the growing role of Gulf and BRICS‑aligned jurisdictions in shaping neutral, commercially responsive justice frameworks that can support sustainable trade, reconstruction, and peaceful commerce in an increasingly multipolar world.
