oa Foreword from the Editor-in-Chief

Dear authors and esteemed readers,

It is with honor that I write this foreword for the International Review of Law (IRL) Special Issue of the Future of Alternative Dispute Resolution conference held in Qatar University, College of Law (QU Law), in May 2017.

QU Law continues a tradition of bringing together researchers, academics and professionals from all over the world. In this special issue, we have abstracts from 11 experts in law. Abou El Farag asks whether ADR is suitable for the resolution of intellectual property disputes. Alshorbagy and Elattar co-author an abstract and specifically focus on the rise and fall of international administrative arbitration from an Egyptian law perspective. Anani studies ADR from the perspective of economic disputes. Botchway takes us through the current and future trends of arbitrating natural resource disputes. Dahdal's abstract is on a comparative examination of the Qatar Financial Center (QFC) consumer dispute resolution scheme. El Shazly discusses resolving investment disputes with corruption, revolution and settlement from an Egyptian law perspective. Nader studies the validity of arbitration in the case of absence of signatures. Ahmed comments on the new Qatari 2017 arbitration law. Negm researches the future challenges and paradigmatic changes in international arbitration. Nouh's abstract focuses on ADR and the Qatari administrative contracts. Finally, Sharar comments on the role of the Civil and Commercial Court of QFC under the new Qatari 2017 arbitration law.

These abstracts will furnish the field with an excellent point of reference and will be an impetus to stimulate further study and research.

A special note of gratitude goes to my colleague Francis Botchway, who was behind the idea of this conference. I thank Fatma Al-Mesleh, Jon Truby, Yassin Elshazly and Ioannis Konstantinidis for working behind the scenes for months in preparation of the conference and in the final delivery of these abstracts. Very special thanks go to the conference sponsor Sultan Al-Abdulla and partners for their generosity.

I thank all authors and participants for their contributions without which we would not have been able to publish this special issue.