An international legal affairs and dispute resolution workshop that featured more than 35 presentations was hosted and managed by a multidisciplinary team of experts at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, bringing together more than 60 experts in the field.
The four-day event in October 2023 was organized by the Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction (LADR), and co-sponsored by the Construction Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The workshop was supported by Hensel Phelps, UH Mānoa College of Engineering and the UH Mānoa Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering (CECE).
The workshop was held in a hybrid format at the UH Mānoa Campus Center, and was attended by 63 participants, of whom 35 were online, and 28 were on-site. A total of 36 presentations were made and accompanied by full-length manuscripts that will be published in the peer-reviewed Journal of LADR. The workshop offered an opportunity for researchers in this niche area to network and collaborate on future projects.
The workshop started with an introduction from Lance VanDemark of Vertex Engineering, CO, who served as the primary guest editor of the special collection of this workshop. Keynote speeches were given by Professor John Barkai of the UH Mānoa William S. Richardson School of Law, Professor Robert Robinson of the Shidler College of Business and Ulrike Quapp, an attorney from HTWK Leipzig, Germany. Morgen Johansen, UH Mānoa Public Administration Program chair, and Song Choi, College of Engineering assistant dean, gave welcome addresses. The opening session included a color guard ceremony by the UH Navy ROTC, and the Star Spangled Banner and Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī were sung by Yamilet Garcia of the Department of Music.
“The workshop was a great success,” said Professor Amarjit Singh of the UH Mānoa CECE, who organized and chaired the event, and is also the editor-in-chief of the LADR journal. “Invaluable assistance was offered by CECE graduate students, Lt. Col. James Walton, TA Rumesh Senthilnathan, Lt. Kim Long Le, East-West Center Fellow Kalen Eyre, Cpt. Kevin Corizzi and East-West Center Fellow Menghong An. All in all, the workshop owes its success to the collaborative effort of faculty and staff from multiple departments and schools of UH.”
Singh also acknowledged the assistance from the IT staff from CECE, and students from the Information and Computer Sciences Department who helped manage the hybrid sessions.
Also part of the conference was a welcome reception and a cultural tour to the Polynesian Cultural Center, which was supported by Hensel Phelps.
