INTERNATIONAL DISPUTE SETTLEMENT 2003-2004

 

7:  INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION

 

Basic Reading:

Collier & Lowe, ch. 3.

 

Further reading:

 Asouzou, International Commercial Arbitration and African States (2001) Bodleian Private Int 510 A837a

* Lew (ed.), Contemporary Problems in International Arbitration, (1986) Bodleian Internat 710 L669a

   von Mehren and Kourides, ‘International Arbitrations between States and Foreign Private Parties: The Libyan Nationalization Cases’, 75 AJIL 476 (1981)

   Plantey, ‘Quelques observations sur l’arbitrage administré’, 126 Journal du droit international 731-743 (1999)

   Sempasa, ‘Obstacles to Commercial Arbitration in African Countries’, 41 ICLQ 387 (1992)

Among the (relatively) inexpensive texts, you may find the following useful:

*  K. Tweeddale and A. Tweeddale, A Practical Approach to Arbitration Law, (1999)

* E.A. Marshall, Gill The Law of Arbitration (4th ed, 2001)

 

For reference:

*Fouchard, Gaillard & Goldman, Traité de l’arbitrage commercial international, (1996); translated as Fouchard, Gaillard & Goldman on International Commercial Arbitration, (1999) Private Int 510 F763

* Redfern and Hunter, Law and Practice of International Commercial Arbitration, (3rd ed. 1999; student edition 2003) Internat 590 R315a3

--International Commercial Arbitration (Loose-leaf)

--Wetter, The International Arbitral Process, (1979).

--Collection of ICC Arbitral Awards (3 vols) in Bodleian Law Library at 510 I61h (2)

-- http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/intlarb.html 

-- http://www.internationaladr.com/ 

--Arbitration - Resources on International Commercial Arbitration, via http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/oxlip/index.html , Law

 

 

Ad Hoc (Mixed) Commercial Arbitration

1.       There have been many mixed (State / non-State) arbitrations organised on an ad hoc basis.  For examples of compromissory clauses, see, e.g., Egypt-Egyptian Petroleum Corporation/ESSO, Concession Agreement of 14 December 1974, 14 ILM 933 (1975), art. XXI;   Libyan National Oil Co./Occidental of Libya Inc., Agreement of 7 February 1974, 14 ILM 645 (1975), art. XII;  Syria-Syrian Petroleum Co.-Pecten Ash Sham Co./Syria Shell Petroleum Development B.V./Deminex Petroleum Syria GmbH, Contract for the Exploration, Development and Production of Petroleum, 21 August 1985, 26 ILM 1186 (1987). art. XXIII.

 

Arbitration Rules

  There are many (in effect, competing) sets of arbitration rules, mostly drafted by private professional bodies such as the American Arbitration Association, the London Court of International Arbitration, and the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). See   http://www.internationaladr.com/ 

 

2.       For examples of arbitration rules and bodies, see the list published at < http://www.internationaladr.com  > (under ‘Institutions and Rules). E.g., Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration; the Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, Cairo (modified 1976 UNCITRAL Rules), and cf. Aboul Enein, ‘Arbitration under the Auspices of the Cairo Regional Centre...’, 4 Int'l Tax & Business Lawyer 256 (1986); the Commercial Arbitration and Mediation Center for the Americas (CAMCA), Mediation and Arbitration Rules, 35 ILM 1541 (1997); the Euro-Arab Chambers of Commerce, Rules of Conciliation, Arbitration and Expertise, 1982, 24 ILM 1119 (1985); ICC Rules of Arbitration, 1998, 36 ILM 1604 (1997); the ICC; the London Court of International Arbitration, 1998 Arbitration Rules, 37 ILM 669 (1998); the Singapore International Arbitration Centre; and the other rules set out in the appendix to Redfern & Hunter and at http://www.internationaladr.com/ .

 

3.       The ICC rules will be taken as a model of an ‘administered arbitration’.  For the texts see International Chamber of Commerce, 1975 Rules, 15 ILM 395 (1976); 1988 Revision, 28 ILM 231 (1989); 1998 Revision, 36 ILM 1604 (1997), http://www.iccwbo.org/index_court.asp . See also Hancock, ‘The ICC Court of Arbitration’, 1 J. Int. Arb. 21 (April, 1984); Friedland, ‘The Swiss Supreme Court Sets Aside an ICC Award’, 13 Journal of International Arbitration 111-116 (1996); Craig, Park, & Paulsson's annotated guide to the 1998 ICC arbitration rules (1999).

 

4.       UNCITRAL sought to draft a set of ‘ideologically neutral’ rules for non-administered arbitration: see the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, 1976, 15 ILM 701 (1976).  See also Sanders, II Yearbook of Commercial Arbitration 172 (1977);  S.A. Baker and M.D. Davis, The UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules in Practice: The Experience of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal (1992).  http://www.uncitral.org/en-index.htm

 

 

Arbitration Laws

5.       The legal status of arbitral proceedings and the relationship of arbitral tribunals with the local courts needs to be determined by the local law [the lex fori].  That law may lay down rules governing the conduct of the arbitration, and so operate as the lex arbitri.

 

6.      UNCITRAL has drafted a Model Law on arbitration: UNCITRAL, Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, 1985, 24 ILM 1302, 1314 (1985); <http://www.uncitral.org/en-index.htm >.  See further, e.g., Hermann, ‘The UNCITRAL Model Law’, 1 Arbitration International, 6 (April 1985);  ---, ‘The role of the courts under the UNCITRAL Model Law script’, in  Lew (ed.), Contemporary Problems in International Arbitration, (1987), 164;  Kerr, ‘Arbitration and the Courts: The UNCITRAL Model Law’, 34 ICLQ 1 (1985); Paterson, ‘Implementing the UNCITRAL Model Law: the Canadian experience’, [1996] Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Journal 147-158.

 

7.       For an example of the development of national arbitration law under the influence of UNCITRAL see, e.g., the UK Arbitration Acts, 1950, 1979, 1996 [1996 Act, 36 ILM 155 (1997)]. ‘Arbitration Act Special’, Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Law Journal, July 1997; F. Davidson, ‘The New Arbitration Act – A Model Law’, [1997] Journal of Business Law 101.

 

8.       For further recent examples see, e.g., Brazil, Arbitration Act 1996, 36 ILM 1562 (1997); People’s Republic of China, Arbitration Law, 1994, 34 ILM 1650 (1995); Germany, Act on the Reform of the law Relating to Arbitral Proceedings, 1997, 37 ILM 790 (1998). Fouchard, Gaillard & Goldman on International Commercial Arbitration, (1999) [France]; Thomas Oehmke, International Arbitration, (1990) [USA];  Samir Saleh, Commercial Arbitration in the Arab Middle East, (1984); Cheng Dejun, Michael J Moser and Wang Shengchang, International Arbitration in the Peoples’ Republic of China, (1995).

 

 

International Agreements On Arbitration

9.       The efficacy of arbitration as a means of settling international disputes depends upon the existence of international agreements supporting the validity of arbitration agreements and awards.  For early instances, see the Geneva Protocol on Arbitration Clauses, 1923, 27 LNTS 157; and the Geneva Convention on the Execution of Foreign Arbitral Awards, 1927, 92 LNTS 301.

 

10.   The most important current international agreement is the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, 1958, 330 UNTS 3 , <  http://www.uncitral.org/en-index.htm  >; van den Berg, The New York Arbitration Convention of 1958, (1981); and see updating entries in each Yearbook Commercial Arbitration.

 

11.   Other international instruments include:  European Convention on International Commercial Arbitration, Geneva, 1961, 484 UNTS 349; Moscow Convention on the Settlement by Arbitration of Disputes resulting from Economic, Scientific and Technical Cupertino, 1972, 13 ILM 5 (1974) [see Stromberg, ‘General Introduction’, I Yearbook of Commercial Arbitration 4 (1976)];  Inter-American (Panama) Convention on International Commercial Arbitration, 1975, 14 ILM 336 (1975) [see Garro, ‘Enforcement of Arbitration Agreements and Jurisdiction of Arbitral Tribunals in Latin America, Jo. Int'l Arb. 293 (Dec., 1984);  Norberg, ‘General Introduction to Inter-American Commercial Arbitration’, III Yearbook of Commercial Arbitration 1] For texts  < http://www.internationaladr.com/ >.

 

 

The move towards mixed arbitrations

12.   On the move towards mixed arbitrations see PCA (1962, 1993 Rules. <http://www.pca-cpa.org/>); Turriff arbitration, 1966 Ned. Tid. Int. Recht, 1970, 2, p. 200;  ICSID, Washington Convention, 1965, 575 UNTS 159, 4 ILM 524 (1966), and the Iran-US Claims Tribunal [see earlier lectures].