The European Federation for Investment Law and Arbitration's (EFILA) inaugural conference was held at Senate House, London on 23 January 2015.
The conference was organised together with the the School of International Arbitration (SIA) with the objective of encouraging discussion on investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) and free trade agreements, as well as the interaction between EU law and investment treaty law. A full write-up was featured on the Commercial Dispute Resolution (CDR) website as well as the EFILA website.
The conference caught the attention of protestors against the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP).
EFILA is a think tank headed by Nikos Lavranos that aims to promote "knowledge about all aspects of EU and international investment law, including arbitration, at the European level". The organisation also seeks "to facilitate a meaningful exchange of views...in order to contribute to a more favourable investment climate in Europe and beyond."
Professor Loukas Mistelis and Norah Gallagher, both of Queen Mary University of London, are members of the advisory board of EFILA. Professor Mistelis coordinated EFILA's response to the European Commission in relation to TTIP.