Opening Remarks by ADGM Courts

Your excellencies, distinguished guests, friends, good morning. It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the fourth edition of Resolve. Another bold addition as always but with this time as Rachel has mentioned with a theme of courage and I will add to her definition of heart at the heart but it is about a quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty or danger. It's really about bravery and that's why we're here today. We are honored to be joined today by his excellency Abdullah bin Sultan bin Aad al- Muimi, UAE minister of justice, my chairman of ADGM, his excellency Jasum al- Zabi, together with representatives of UAE's judiciary, government leaders, regulators and international delegations from courts and arbitral institutions around the world.

It is also my pleasure to welcome the global financial community, the web 3 innovators and the technology leaders who are we are mingling amongst here on fintech day in this amazing Abu Dhabi finance week. It is rare to see finance, technology, and dispute resolution share one stage, but that is precisely the spirit in which Abu Dhabi has built its legal and economic infrastructure. And ADGM would never wish to squander an opportunity to bring them all together to inspire people and allow them to hear their insights. We meet at a moment of accelerated change in global dispute resolution which is driven by volatility in the global economy coupled with the extraordinary impact of new technologies. Disputes are becoming increasingly complex, crossborder and datadriven.

Markets are being shaped by AI systems, digital assets, new forms of value creation. And geopolitical dynamics are interacting with technology in ways that are creating new categories of risk and occasionally new categories of conflict. In this environment, legal certainty becomes a strategic advantage for nations. Legal certainty drives investment, innovation, and confidence in markets under stress and it determines whether global capital feels safe crossing borders. That is why resolve is not designed as a conference.

Resolve is a working platform for the future architecture of dispute resolution to ensure legal certainty remains paramount and resolve is on a mission to solve tomorrow's conundrums before we encounter tomorrow's disputes. This means that ADGM courts must remain in sync with ADGM's regulators as they take bold decisions in regulatory reform and anticipate the pressing issues on the horizon by designing creative structures and frameworks with strategic vision. Now, ADGM continues to show incredible legit legislative agility to respond to the creativity of emerging sectors and the court has made sure it moves with the tide of change and at the speed expected by business. With almost 500 cases this year, the court is working, as you would expect, of a leading international commercial court. Fast, efficient, effective, dynamic, reliable, and as digital as its DNA.

And all while preserving the rule of law. That combination, innovation and integrity is in my view what courage in justice looks like. It is the perfect pre prelude to the keynote address. We will hear from his excellency on justice with courage. noting that the UAE stands today as a leader in the rule of law, being placed in the top quartile globally, notably ranking 37 out of 143 countries in the World Justice 2025 rule of law index and first regionally in Mina.

VueE is not a follower and resolve is a reflection of that leadership story. Today's program invites us to explore emerging dispute frontiers and ask what norms will govern these spaces. Who will define accountability? How do we prepare? How do we sustain high performance?

How do we get the edge? From Mark Randolph, former CEO and co-founder of Netflix, we will hear the story of building the impossible. What is most intriguing about this session, probably my favorite session, is that it is in conversation with a titan and an extraordinary leader of the leg UAE legal profession and somebody who I admire to the greatest extent possible, Essen Altoimi. Dispute resolution and entrepreneurship actually share a truth. The most transformative ideas often begin with doubt and determination and disputes ride a roller coaster of doubt and determination.

In our session on AI, we confront the reality that technology is creating new types of harm. Fishing attacks alone increased by over,200% last year. Regulators are racing to catch up. Courts, lawyers, and the whole of the dispute resolution industry are players, significant players in shaping the future for liability, safeguards, and ethical frameworks. The remarkable Dr.

Nancy Gleason of MBZ UAI will traverse the rocky road of how institutions adapt when human capacity changes. When neuroscience, digital tools, and new learning models redefine how societies think, work, and resolve conflict. Justice is not only about rules, though. It operates as a human institution powered by human judgment shaped by human values and applied to human lives. I know there must be skep sk skepticism about that remark given AI but I think for the moment it holds true for which I for one am thankful.

In our panel on crypto disputes, we face questions that courts have never encountered at this scale. Which jurisdiction governs a distributed network? Should assets be frozen on chain? How do you enforce a judgment across jurisdictionless architecture? Matthew Lewis will take us through decision making of top performers, the intersection of mental clarity and strategic negotiation with Formula 1 drivers as the perfect example of the relentless high performing.

And our last panel, an exceptional group of CEOs from Binance, Standard Chartered Bank, Swiss Regentum Creek, and SSNC Technologies will give us their diverse perspective on the threats and strategies to mitigate those threats facing their organizations. Resolve is not only about how we settle disputes. It is about the systems that prevent, manage and learn from them. Resolve is built to strengthen partnerships that will align thinking on enforcement, mediation, culture, regulatory design, education, and standards for digital dispute resolution. To wrap up on our theme, we must have courage to remain principled when technology pushes against our norms.

Courage to innovate when regulation feels rigid. Courage to lead when the terrain keeps shifting beneath us. and above all courage to place all people at the very center of this transformation. I wish to extend my profuse thanks and gratitude to those who have been made resolve respons possible this year. Firstly to my chairman whom I cannot thank enough for his vision on Abu Dhabi finance week and for having resolve as part of this massive transformative event for the second year.

To our event partners, our family, the UAE Ministry of Justice, Abu Dabo Judicial Department, Arbitrate AD, Lexus Nexus and Alamian Co. You are the threads that are truly engineering the capital network here in Abu Dhabi and the UAE. My massive and special thanks to our speakers, many of whom have traveled from afar to help make Brazil's fourth edition so tremendously dynamic and impactful. To my amazing team, my lean team of Hashi Dou and Hannah Denahi. Thank you for your unbelievable patience with me and your outstanding work.

But my immense thanks goes to you for supporting us again for another year. You have no idea how grateful we are to have the community along with us every step of the way as we relentlessly pursue our ambition to be different and compelling. Finally, it is my honor to introduce a leader who has shaped the UAE's approach to law and justice with both clarity and conviction. His Excellency Abdullah bin Sultan Baweed Al- Noimi, UAE Minister of Justice, has been instrumental in advancing a justice system capable of guiding society through uncharted territory, embracing innovation while safeguarding principle and building institutions with the confidence to lead. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming his excellency to reflect on how the UAE judiciary is confronting the disputes of tomorrow.

Thank you.