Professor Hiro Aragaki

Hiro Aragaki’s research interests cluster around the study of arbitration and mediation from comparative, international, and law and development perspectives.

His primary appointment is as a tenured Professor of Law at University of California College of Law, San Francisco (UC Law SF), where he is also the Director of the Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution (CNDR). His scholarship has won prestigious accolades and been published in top U.S. law journals, including flagship law reviews at NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale. 

He has consulted on ADR reform projects around the world, including as an Advisor to the Expert Committee on Mediation, Supreme Court of India, an Advisor to the judiciary of Kazakhstan regarding arbitration law reforms, and a mediation expert for the World Bank’s new Business Ready Project. 

He has also served as a neutral for twenty years, most recently with JAMS, where he arbitrates and mediates commercial, international, technology, banking and finance, and entertainment disputes, among others. He is a Chartered Arbitrator with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators (U.S.), and has been named on the List of the World’s Leading Technology Neutrals by the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center.

Selected publications

• Raman Maroz & Hiro Aragaki, Globally, Businesses Don’t Have Access to Mediation in More than 40% of Economies, World Bank Data Blog (forthcoming) (2026)
• The Federal Arbitration Act in Comparative Perspective: Is the United States an Outlier?, in The Federal Arbitration Act: Successes, Failures, and a Roadmap for Reform (Richard A. Bales & Jill I. Gross eds., 2024)
• Submission to the Expert Committee Constituted by the Ministry of Law & Justice, India, in Response To Notice Inviting Comments on the Working of Arbitration Law in India (with Srividhya Ragavan, Texas A&M School of Law; Jul. 2023).
• U.S. and International Perspectives on the Kazakhstani Law on Arbitration, 2016: A Report and Recommendations, presented to the Judiciary of Kazakhstan (Jun. 2022)
• A Snapshot of National Legislation on Same Neutral Med-Arb and Arb-Med Around the Globe, in Multi-Tier Approaches to the Resolution of International Disputes: A Global and Comparative Study (Anselmo Reyes & Weixia Gu 2021)

Selected speaking engagements

• Presenter, Handling Difficult Lawyers in a Mediation, CAMP Arbitration & Mediation Practice, Bangalore, India (Apr. 21, 2025)
• ICC YAAF Panel on Facilitating Settlements in International Arbitration, California Int’l Arbitration Week California International Arbitration Week (with Ghada Audi, Kathryn Barnes, Marek Krasula, Paul Hines and Nilufar Hossain, Mar. 2024)
• Does Mandatory Mediation Work?, SOAS Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Centre Mediation Webinar (with Michael Bartlet, Kelly Stricklin-Countinho, Laila Ollapally, and Nene Etuk, Mar. 2024)
• Dispute Resolution Enforcement, India-US Legal Services Summit on Corporate and Legal Issues, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, New Delhi (with Peter Baugher, Shweta Bharti, and Gaurav Dudeja, Mar. 2024)
• Should Developing States Join the Singapore Convention? Why or Why Not?, Mediation Training Institute East Africa & Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators of Africa Free Mediation Webinar Series (Jun. 2023)

International commercial arbitration, mediation, negotiation, Dispute Systems Design, international law, comparative law and ADR (with an emphasis on Asia and Africa), contracts, Intellectual Property.