Pervasive Problems In International Arbitration

"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.

"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.

Most books on international commercial arbitration approach the subject through legal theory supported by anecdotal evidence. This remarkable book is distinguished by its focus on the application of quantitative empirical research to the study of international arbitration. It collects, together with commentary, the existing empirical literature on the subject, and also presents several studies published here for the first time. Beginning with a basic overview of the methods of empirical research (surveys, observational studies, experimental studies), the book goes on to reprint the existing empirical studies under six headings: why parties agree to arbitrate; arbitration clauses; arbitral procedures; arbitrator selection; rules of decision and applicable law; and, arbitration awards. Written in an easily accessible, non-technical manner, Towards a Science of International Arbitration provides the starting point for future empirical research on international arbitration by collecting the existing empirical literature in one place and by suggesting possible topics for research. It will be of inestimable value to lawyers and others involved in international dispute resolution, whether as arbitrators, parties, party representatives, or in-house counsel, as well as to academics interested in methods of resolving disputes in international commerce.

Challenges and Recusal of Judges and Arbitrators in International Courts and Tribunals provides an in-depth analysis of a fundamental control mechanism of international dispute resolution in the context of some of the main international courts and tribunals. The book also assesses specific grounds and standards for challenging judges and arbitrators, and includes both regional and personal perspectives.

In this thoroughly researched study of the grounds and procedures involved in challenging an arbitrator, the author provides the first in-depth analysis of the pertinent rules, guidelines, and standards of all the major international arbitration tribunals, as well as relevant issues raised in national case law in the United States, France, England, Sweden and Switzerland. Among the matters addressed are the following: the arbitratorand’s duty to disclose and investigate conflicts of interest; the duty of the parties to investigate and inform the arbitrator of conflicts of interest; the formal and timing requirements of making a challenge; the challenge procedure and effect on the arbitral proceeding; the standard for disqualifying arbitrators; the consequences of a successful challenge; issues of independence giving raise to challenges, including multiple appointments, the arbitratorand’s relationship with a party/counsel in the arbitration and the relationship between the arbitratorand’s law firm and a party/counsel; issues of impartiality giving raise to challenges, including the membership of other tribunals, the conduct of the arbitration and the failure to disclose. In light of the continuing growth of international business and the manner in which it is conducted, this book will be of immeasurable practical value to parties in both business and government, as well as to international law firms and the arbitral community. As a detailed guide to evolving best practice and the general obligation to arbitrate in good faith, it has no peers.

Third Parties in International Commercial Arbitration addresses the role and the interests of third parties in international arbitration. Through a clear overview and in-depth critical commentary, the book explores existing case law and its related academic literature as well as offering an insight into more practical concerns.

This publication from the International Bureau of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) presents a collection of studies on the key issues found in complex international commercial and investment disputes. Renowned authors from Europe and North America consider issues from perspectives emanating from both the Anglo-American and Continental European legal systems. The authors consider international multiparty arbitration and its attendant problems from both a conceptual and practical perspective, beginning with the overarching legal problems of determining the proper parties to the arbitration and the ambit of contractual consent. Topics which are comprehensively examined include: Joiner of parties and consolidation of arbitral proceedings; the challenges of administration of multiparty arbitrations; investment arbitration involving multiple parties and multiparty issues in investor-state arbitration; classwide arbitration and arbitrating mass investor claims; lessons that can be learnt from mass claims processes; and enforcement issues. The book also includes a practitioner-oriented discussion of multiparty arbitration in the construction industry.

There are many issues of arbitral practice that remain largely unaddressed, or very poorly addressed, in the sources to which tribunals and counsel conventionally turn for procedural guidance: the arbitration agreement, the lex arbitri and rules of procedure. This book brings together the most frequently recurring of such “twilight” issues—so-called because all participants in the arbitral process, when facing them, find themselves “in the dark”—showing in each case where it is best for arbitrators, counsel, and parties to look for solutions offering logic, certainty and predictability. The issues ably covered by the author include, among others, the following: Is a non-signatory bound by or entitled to invoke an arbitration agreement? When may res judicata or collateral estoppel subject? Should a tribunal issue an anti-suit injunction? When may a tribunal treat as mandatory a law other than the chosen one? On what basis may a witness invoke testimonial privilege? When may a tribunal sanction counsel for what it considers misconduct? By what standards is a determination of corruption to be made? How should a tribunal determine the interest rate applicable to an award? On what basis are costs to be allocated? Examining in turn the guidance that may be provided by normative sources—national law (and if so, which one?), simple exercise of good judgment, or “international standards” derived from soft law, arbitral jurisprudence, international law, and scholarly and professional commentary—the analysis clearly shows how, when conventional sources of legal guidance are unavailing, decisions on important matters of arbitral practice and procedure are best made. The book will prove of major relevance and value to any and all stakeholders in the international arbitral process, whether commercial or investor-state.