On February 21, 2023, Nagoya University Graduate School hosted the international conference "Taking Legal Cultures Seriously. Perspectives on Diversity in Contemporary Law", co-organized with the Research Unit "Decolonizing Arbitration", Nagoya University. Prof. Dai Yokomizo, Professor and Vice-Dean, offered the opening remarks. After that, Dr. Joshua Karton, Associate Professor at Queen's University and Tsai Wan-Tsai Visiting Chair Professor of International Law, National Taiwan University College of Law gave a keynote speech on the role of comparative law in arbitration, with Prof. Tomoko Ishikawa, Nagoya University Graduate School of International Development, as discussant.

The conference then continued with a session where Nagoya University Graduate School Ph.D. candidates presented their research. Ms. Munkhnaran Munkhtuvshin delivered a paper on the issue of the lack of gender diversity in arbitration in East Asia; Mr. Ahadjon Khakimov discussed the complex, formal and informal, role of sharia in the decisions of tribunals in Uzbekistan; Anh Quang Nguyen presented on the issue of liquidated damages and penalties in Vietnamese law from a comparative perspective.

The conference was then closed by a keynote speech by Prof. Livia Holden (Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne) on cultural expertise and its role in Europe, with Prof. Shiho Kato (Tokyo Metropolitan University) serving as discussant.

The conference was attended by many in person participants, as well as via Zoom.

With initiatives like this Nagoya University Graduate School of Law continues in its tradition of innovative research on legal and cultural diversity, and it is honored to attract leading scholars to its events.