Chapter 7 discusses the various rules that govern arbitration proceedings and issues that may arise. The chapter focuses on the process of arbitration, including the preliminary hearing, obtaining evidence, and presenting both documentary evidence and witness testimony. Scheduling hearings should be done early in the process, considering the availability of arbitrators, lawyers, parties and witnesses. Virtual hearings became much more common during the global pandemic due to cost and time efficiency. However, challenges related to cybersecurity, data protection, technical knowledge, accessibility, and witness testimony must be addressed in virtual proceedings. The future of hearings may involve a combination of virtual and in-person elements, depending on the preference and circumstances of the parties.

To fully understand the innovative potential of intersectional advocacy, one needs to understand the traditional policymaking process that it confronts. In Chapter 2 illustrates how policy boundaries contribute to inequality in the United States. Drawing from a textual analysis of the Congressional hearings on the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and newspaper articles covering VAWA, the chapter presents evidence that the policy boundaries in the VAWA harmed intersectionally marginalized groups. Moreover, it shows advocacy groups that did not represent intersectionally-marginalized groups contributed to the setting of these policy boundaries by participating in the policymaking process. Underscoring how advocacy groups that do not represent multiply-marginalized intervene in the policymaking process, this chapter illustrates what is at stake with the traditional policymaking process and the ways that mainstream advocacy groups have participated in it.

In Chapter 3, the overarching question of this book starts to be answered: how do advocacy groups intervene in policymaking processes to represent intersectionally marginalized populations? Here, work is presented that examines how advocacy groups representing intersectionally-marginalized groups have participated in this policymaking process. Analyses of the testimony and statements from advocacy groups during Congressional hearings over the reauthorization of VAWA from the past 25 years is provided to show that select organizations were successfully advocating for linkages between policies and issues that reflected the experiences of intersectionally marginalized groups. These linkages were between VAWA and policies on welfare, immigration, and tribal rights. In this chapter, “intersectional advocacy,” is identified to explain how advocacy groups in this setting engaged in it to change VAWA policy over time. The chapter shows that VAWA changes in remarkable ways that better represent and serve intersectionally marginalized groups.

The second part concludes with a chapter on effective advocacy before the ICJ, by Samuel Wordsworth QC and Kate Parlett. It examines both written and oral advocacy before the Court, with the fundamental objective of the advocate in all cases being to persuade, making it essential to consider what will be of most utility to the judges when they come to reach a decision on the case. They also emphasise the significant role the advocate has to play in the pre-litigation stage and in early procedural exchanges: she or he must bear in mind that they have a dual function of presenting the best case for the client to the Court, while also persuading the client as to the most effective way in which to do that.

This chapter fast-forwards to the days of the hearing. It offers an overview of the oral pleadings, the exchanges between the parties, and the interactions between the litigants and the bench. The analysis seeks to dispel the common misunderstanding that a hearing entails a free-flowing and spontaneous discussion. In fact, it often looks like a tightly choreographed play where agents, counsel, adjudicators, and court officials each follow their script. All participants embrace their role as actors and gleefully contribute to this staged performance. The theatrics of the hearing serve a twofold purpose. On the one hand, they enable the professionals involved to come together, tacitly acknowledge one another, and enhance their relative prestige. On the other hand, they help convey the symbolic force of international adjudication as the center-stage of peaceful governance.

This chapter contains a comprehensive, step-by-step analysis of the consultations phase in WTO dispute settlement. Then the chapter examines the practice and procedure used to establish a WTO panel and the composition of the panel. The chapter then analyzes the panel process step-by-step, including the organizational meeting, the working procedures, the written submissions to the panel, the hearings of the panel, the interim report, and the final report. The chapter also discusses the role of third parties and of the WTO Secretariat in the panel process.