Dr. Crina Baltag FCIArb reveals 2026 Roebuck Lecture topic
Dr. Crina Baltag FCIArb has confirmed that her topic for this year’s Roebuck Lecture will be Revisiting the Paradox of Trust: Disclosure and the Changing Dynamics of Impartiality in International Arbitration.
The lecture, which will be delivered on 18 June in London, will revisit the enduring paradox at the heart of international arbitration: that mechanisms designed to secure trust - particularly disclosure - may simultaneously generate doubt. It will examine how the duty of disclosure, incumbent on both arbitrators and parties, has expanded in scope and intensity, reshaping expectations of impartiality.
Crina will give particular attention to how the growing availability and visibility of data around arbitrators and parties heightens scrutiny and blurs the boundaries of what ought to be disclosed.
The lecture will argue that impartiality is increasingly a dynamic construct, emerging from evolving practices of transparency and the reciprocal obligations of participants in the arbitral process. In this context, it remains central to the legitimacy of arbitration.
Crina said: “International arbitration is built on trust, but we are reaching a point where the very mechanisms meant to secure that trust, particularly disclosure, are beginning to unsettle it. In an era of expanding data and unprecedented visibility over arbitrators and parties, disclosure is no longer a stabilising obligation, but a moving target. The result is a system in which more transparency does not necessarily produce more confidence, but often more doubt.
This lecture interrogates how impartiality is being reshaped under these pressures, and what that means for arbitrators, counsel, and parties who are navigating a system that is becoming more transparent and exposed.”
Ciarb’s Director of External Affairs, Cristen Bauer, said: “This is a timely and important lecture that speaks to the very foundation of the arbitral process. Independence and impartiality of arbitrators is essential to the integrity of that process. But as rules and guidelines are updated, we must seek to strike the right balance between transparency that builds trust with users, and a process that remains effective and workable in practice.”
Tickets are now available for the Roebuck Lecture - £15 for Ciarb members and £50 for non-members. Virtual attendance is free of charge, but registration is required.
