Conflict Of Laws In International Arbitration

Irrespective of the increasing harmonization of law at the transnational level, every arbitration raises a number of confl ict of laws problems relating to procedural questions as well as to issues concerning the merits of the case. Unlike a state court judge, the arbitrator has no "lex fori" in the proper sense providing the relevant confl ict rules to determine the applicable law. This raises the question of what confl ict of laws rules to apply and, consequently, of the extent of the freedom the arbitrator enjoys in dealing with this and related issues. The best example of the importance of confl ict of laws questions in arbitration is the Vivendi-Elektrim saga where the outcome of the various proceedings depended on the question of characterization. This very beneficial book is dealing with - the arbitration agreement, - the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal, - the law applicable to the merits and - the arbitration procedure.

La 4e de couverture indique : "It is often asserted that conlfict of laws rules are not as relevant in the context of international arbitration as they are in that of judicial proceddings. Acording to some commentators, it is, inter alia, to avoid the complicated conflict of laws methodology that parties opt for international arbitration, since they assume that arbitral tribunals do not apply conflict of laws rules. As recent case law from a number of jurisdictions shows, the assumtions behind these assertions is incorrect. This book addresses some of the most important conflicts of laws problems that may arise in connection with the various stages of arbitral proceddings."

Overriding Mandatory Rules in International Commercial Arbitration discusses the applicability of mandatory rules of law in international commercial arbitration and addresses the concerns of the arbitrators and judges at various stages of arbitration and the enforcement of the award.

International commercial arbitration raises issues other than the choice of the law applicable to the principal contract. Autonomy may have a wider meaning, extending beyond the choice of applicable law to the choice of arbitration itself, and of the place or places where it is to be conducted. Nor is it altogether clear what the forum is, if any. This paper raises the fundamental question of what gives the arbitrator his or her competence--the will of the parties or the law of the seat of arbitration which the parties may, or may not, have chosen? The paper also suggests an answer to the questions of which choice of law rules, if any, should be applied by the arbitrators, to what extent arbitrators will apply mandatory rules (règles d'application immédiate), as well as which law governs the procedural aspects and whether it has to be the procedural law of a national system. The new English Arbitration Act 1996 has also been taken into account.

Arbitration is the dispute resolution method of choice in international commerce, but it rests on a complex legal foundation. In many international commercial contracts, the parties will choose the law governing any future disputes. However, where the parties do not choose a governing law, theprevailing approach in arbitration is to afford arbitrators broad and largely unfettered discretion to choose the law considered most appropriate or most applicable. The uncertainty resulting from this discretion potentially affects the parties' rights and obligations, the performance of theircontract, the presentation of their cases, and negotiations undertaken to settle their disputes.In this text, Dr Benjamin Hayward critically reviews the prevailing approach to the conflict of laws in international commercial arbitration. The text adopts a focused and detail-oriented analysis - being based on a study of more than 130 sets of arbitral laws and rules from around the world, anddrawing heavily on arbitral case law. Nevertheless, it remains both practical and accessible, taking as its focus the needs and expectations of commercial parties, who are the ultimate users of international commercial arbitration.This text identifies the difficulties that result from resolving conflicts of laws through broad and unconstrained arbitral discretions. It establishes that a bright-line test would be a preferable way to resolve arbitral conflicts of laws. Specifically, it recommends a modified Art. 4 RomeConvention rule as the ideal basis for law reform in this area of arbitral procedure.

The distinguished international lawyer Michael Pryles, who launched a meteoric career as an arbitrator after many years of teaching and writing on conflicts of law and other topics, has made a mark on arbitral law and practice that is recognized worldwide. In this book, over forty prominent arbitrators and arbitration scholars offer insightful essays on the thorny matters of jurisdiction, admissibility and choice of law in arbitration – topics which have long interested Professor Pryles and are of wide interest. Among the specific issues and topics examined are the following: • res judicata; • investment arbitration; • free trade agreements; • party autonomy; • application of provisional measures; • issue estoppel; • evidentiary inferences; • interim measures; • emergency and default proceedings; • the intersection of financing and jurisdiction; • consolidation of cases; and • non-contractual claims. Remarkable for its roster of highly distinguished contributors, this book is the only in-depth treatment of its subject. By turns thought-provoking and practical, it is bound to appeal to and be put to use by arbitrators and other lawyers who handle international cases. It will also prove of great value to global law firms and companies doing transnational business.

"This important book will be of great interest to arbitration lawyers, international lawyers and business people, as well as to academics, libraries, and students of dispute resolution."--Publisher's website.

No field of legal scholarship or practice operates in the world of private international law as continuously and pervasively as does international arbitration, commercial and investment alike. Arbitration’s dependence on private international law manifests itself throughout the life-cycle of arbitration, from the crafting of an enforceable arbitration agreement, through the entire arbitral process, to the time an award comes before a national court for annulment or for recognition and enforcement. Thus international arbitration provides both arbitral tribunals and courts with constant challenges. Courts may come to the task already equipped with longstanding private international law assumptions, but international arbitrators must largely find their own way through the private international law thicket. Arbitrators and courts take guidance in their private international law inquiries from multiple sources: party agreement, institutional rules, treaties, the national law of competing jurisdictions and an abundance of “soft law”, some of which may even be regarded as expressing an international standard. In a world of this sort, private international law resourcefulness is fundamental.