Third Parties In International Commercial Arbitration

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 volume 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.

The specialization and financial demand of global business render international transactions inherently multilateral and thus best effected through arbitration agreements. However, it often happens that – for various reasons, such as a debtor’s failure to pay damages ordered by an arbitral tribunal – third parties who did not consent to the original arbitration enter the scene. This is the first book to examine the binding effects of international commercial arbitral awards in follow-up disputes against third parties. It comprehensively analyses arbitral awards’ third-party effects under national arbitration laws, the New York Convention and private international law. Moreover, it proposes solutions under transnational law before both courts and arbitral tribunals. Applying a continuously comparative methodology that refers to specific statutory, jurisprudential and scholarly sources, this book explores the nature and implications of such aspects of third-party involvement as the following: the foundations of the doctrine of res judicata and its intrinsic connection to other tools of forum coordination; the distinction between res judicata before courts on the one hand and arbitral tribunals on the other; the application of non-mutual preclusion in favour of third parties; the potential for arbitral awards to constitute a fact in follow-up disputes; a comparison of rules and uncertainties on awards’ third-party effects under various national arbitration acts; preclusion agreements; the arbitration agreement’s scope; and judgments’ third-party effects as a shift of the participatory burden. For civil law, the author focuses on France and Switzerland (as predominant arbitral seats) and on Germany (as a Model Law example). Among common-law countries, he concentrates on England and Wales and on the United States. Statutory sources (with specific wording), leading cases and summaries of the most important scholarly discussions are all invoked. With its clear guidelines for matters currently not addressed in previous publications and likely to be raised in specific cases, this book will prove to be of immeasurable value for arbitration practitioners and academics in any jurisdiction. Business parties that seek to prevent contradicting decisions in multilateral transactions will appreciate the practically feasible alternatives it presents in the event of follow-up disputes involving third parties.

Introduction --The Various Forms of Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration --Litigation Funding in International Arbitration --Disclosure of Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration Proceedings --Privilege Protection of Documentary Evidence and Third-Party Funding --Jurisdictional Issues and Third-Party Funding --Impartiality and Independence of Arbitrators and Third-Party Funding --Confidentiality in International Arbitration Proceedings and Third-Party Funding --Security for Costs and Third-Party Funding --Awarding of Costs and Third-Party Funding --Summary of Part I and Part II --Concluding Remarks.

After neutrality and international enforcement, the next most valued feature of international commercial arbitration is confidentiality. For reasons easy to imagine, businessmen do not want their trade secrets, business plans, strategies, contracts, financial results or any other types of business information to be publicly accessible, as would commonly happen in court proceedings. Yet the case law of arbitration shows that in practical terms confidentiality is not to be taken for granted - in fact, it has become one of the most undetermined matters in international arbitration. Although 'the emperor of arbitration may have clothes, ' as one scholar has quipped, his raiments of secrecy can be 'torn with surprising ease'. This book deciphers the current degree of confidentiality in international commercial arbitration as reflected by the most important arbitration rules, national laws, other arbitration-related enactments, and practices of arbitral tribunals and domestic courts globally. Drawing on this data and analysis, the author then sets forth criteria to assess the breach of confidentiality in international arbitration and the proper rules for protecting or sanctioning such breaches. What do we understand by confidentiality in arbitration? What are its limitations? Who is bound to observe it? How can we quantify its breach? In addressing these questions, the book engages such issues as the following: reasons for disclosure - e.g., for the establishment of a defence, for the enforcement of rights, in the public interest or in the interests of justice disclosure by consent, express or implied; circumstances triggering statutory obligation of disclosure; recent trends towards greater transparency in investor-State arbitration; court measures in support of arbitral confidentiality such as award of damages for breach of confidentiality; and categories of persons bound by confidentiality, including third parties such as witnesses and experts. Structured along the main stages of the arbitral process, the analysis covers the duty of confidentiality from the initiation of arbitral proceedings through their unfolding to the issuance of the award and after. The scope of confidentiality is reviewed in the practice of arbitral tribunals and domestic courts, and from the perspective of international arbitration institutions, with detailed attention to various arbitration rules and numerous significant cases. In its elucidation of the amount of confidentiality that 'veils' each phase of the arbitral process, and its ground-breaking identification of 'patterns of disclosure', this book is sure to raise awareness about the various facets and problems posed by confidentiality in arbitration. Although its scholarly contribution to the law of international commercial arbitration cannot be gainsaid, corporate counsel worldwide will quickly prize its more practical value.

Since the first edition of this invaluable book in 2012, third-party funding has become more mainstream in international arbitration practice. However, since even the existence of a third-party funding agreement in a dispute is often kept secret, it can be difficult to glean the specifics of successful funding agreements. This welcome book, now updated, expertly reveals the nuances of third-party funding in international arbitration, examines the phenomenon in key jurisdictions, and provides a reliable resource for users and potential users that may wish to tap into and make use of this distinctive funding tool. Focusing on Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, and South Africa, the authors analyze and assess the legal regime based upon legislation, judicial opinions, ethics opinions, and practitioner anecdotes describing the state of third-party funding in each jurisdiction. In addition to updating summaries of the law of the various jurisdictions, the second edition includes a new chapter addressing third-party funding in investor-state arbitration. Among the issues raised and examined are the following: · payment of adverse costs; · “Before-the-Event” (BTE) and “After-the-Event” (ATE) insurance; · attorney financing: pro bono representation, contingency representation, conditional fee arrangements; · loans; · ethical doctrines affecting the third-party funding industry; · possible future bundling, securitization, and trading of legal claims; · risk that the funder may put its own interests ahead of the client’s interests; and · whether the existence of a funding agreement must or should be disclosed to the decision maker. The second edition also includes discussion of recent institutional developments as they relate to third-party funding, including the work of the ICCA-Queen Mary Task Force on Third-Party Funding and how third-party funding is being incorporated into arbitral rules and investment treaties. Ably providing a thorough understanding of what third-party funding entails and what legal parameters exist, this book will be of compelling interest to parties aiming to take advantage of the high values, speed, reduced evidentiary costs, outcome predictability, industry expertise, and high award enforceability characteristic of the third-party funding arrangements available in international arbitration.

The Association for International Arbitration (AIA) was founded in order to promote Arbitration and increase the level of knowledge about Alternative Dispute Resolutions.This book is the result of a conference held in October 2007.The contributions are written by international experts and based on analytical insights and research of new tendencies that provide in-depth information.The theme is a vital issue for arbitration services users and practitioners and also an interesting topic for scholars and students.

Central to the book’s purpose is the procedural challenge facing arbitrators at each and every stage of the arbitral process when fairness arguments conflict with efficiency concerns and trade-offs must be determined. Some key themes include how can a tribunal be fair, and in particular be neutral, if parties are so diverse? How can arbitration be made efficient and cost-effective without undue inroads into fairness and accuracy? How does a tribunal do what is best if the parties are choosing a suboptimal process? When can or must an arbitrator ignore procedural choices made by the parties? The author thoroughly evaluates competing arguments and adds his own practical tips, expertly synthesizing and engaging with the conference literature and differing authors’ views. He identifies criteria that offer a harmonized approach to each stage of the arbitral process, with particular attention to such aspects of international arbitration as: appropriate trade-offs between flexibility and certainty; the rights, duties and powers of arbitrators; appointment and challenge of arbitrators; responses to ‘guerilla’ tactics; drafting of arbitration agreements, including specialty clauses; drafting of required commencement notices and response documents; set-off; fast track arbitration and other efficiency options; strategic use of preliminary conferences and timetabling; online arbitration; multi-party, multi-contract, class arbitration; amicus and third party funders; pre-arbitral referees and interim relief; witness evidence, both factual and expert; documentary evidence, production obligations, and challenges to production; identifying applicable law; and remedies and costs.