London Court of International Arbitration director general Kevin Nash and former Commercial Court head Mrs Justice Cockerill are among the headline speakers lined up for London International Disputes Week (LIDW) 2025 in June.

The keynote speakers will open LIDW on 2 June – International Arbitration Day – which emphasises the significance of arbitration as a core pillar of dispute resolution and affirms London’s status as a premier global arbitration centre.

Nash said: “Consistent with London’s standing as a leading forum for resolving disputes, LIDW has firmly established itself as a preeminent week on the calendar,” adding that he was honoured to open the 2025 programme, with International Arbitration Day “packed with a fantastic lineup of speakers and content that engages global perspectives on key issues”.

The event comes at a significant moment for the arbitration sector, following the recent announcement that the Arbitration Act has been granted royal assent. The implications of those developments will be a central theme throughout LIDW25.

Luiz Aboim of Mayer Brown and Vanessa Naish of Herbert Smith Freehills, co-leads of LIDW’s International Arbitration Day, said the event’s popularity – the third such iteration within the LIDW programme – is “a testament to the importance of international arbitration to the London disputes market, and London’s prominence as a global arbitration hub”.

Outlining key changes to the format, International Arbitration Day 2025 will combine its original jurisdictional focus with added coverage of key sectors, such as energy and mining, alongside practice discussions to highlight key procedural and legal issues.

Aboim and Naish added: “Arbitration will feature prominently throughout the week, including in the main conference and dozens of arbitration-related member-hosted events”, throughout LIDW itself, with many familiar faces from the arbitration world attending.

City firms Linklaters, Simmons & Simmons and Squire Patton Boggs will host 2025’s venues for International Arbitration Day. They will be free to attend, with each hub hosting a keynote speech and four in-person panel sessions, allowing delegates to move between the hub firms. The day will culminate at LIDW25’s opening reception at Southwark Cathedral.

The programme for the opening day covers a broad spectrum of topics ranging from corporate and private equity arbitration in Asia to disputes involving state-owned entities and arbitration’s role in major Middle Eastern infrastructure projects.

Regional sessions will examine arbitration in emerging and established seats and disputes in Central Asia amid geopolitical uncertainty, alongside Russia-related disputes, the impact of sanctions, arbitration in renewable energy projects, and procedural efficiency. The EU’s evolving approach to investor-state dispute settlement and cross-jurisdictional mining disputes across Latin America and Africa will also be explored.

Building on last year’s success, LIDW’s main conference on 3 June will again be held at the QEII Centre in Westminster, where delegates will discuss pivotal topics such as AI – which featured prominently last year – the business of dispute resolution, and navigating supply chain disputes and risk.

The Global Legal Post is a media partner of LIDW 2025, which runs from 2-6 June. It will cover International Arbitration Day, the main conference, selected member-hosted events and exhibit works from our Law Over Borders comparative guides, including arbitration.