International Commercial Arbitration Posts

Who Decides if a Dispute Is Subject to Arbitration?

A recent case before the Florida Supreme Court has found that the incorporation by reference of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) arbitration rules in Airbnb’s Terms of Service constitutes clear and unmistakable evidence of the parties’ intent to delegate questions of arbitrability away from the court and to the arbitrator.

Supreme Court To Revisit Circuit Split over Discovery in Aid of International Arbitration

The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in two cases—ZF Automotive US, Inc. v. Luxshare, Ltd., No. 21-401, and AlixPartners, LLP v. Fund for Prot. of Investors’ Rights in Foreign States, No. 21-518—to determine whether the discretion granted to district courts under 28 U.S.C. § 1782 (“Section 1782”) to render assistance in gathering evidence for use in a “foreign or international tribunal” includes seeking evidence in aid of private commercial arbitrations or treaty-based arbitrations.

Column on Arbitration Case Before U.S. Supreme Court

Samuel Estreicher, Rex Heinke and Jessica Weisel delve into an upcoming arbitration case before the Supreme Court of the United States that “asks the Court to resolve a circuit split over the role, if any, that federal courts should play in facilitating discovery in foreign arbitrations.”

The Institute in the Courts: U.K. Supreme Court Cites Restatement of the U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor–State Arbitration

Disputes arising under international commercial contracts that contain arbitration agreements implicate different systems of law, including the law governing the substance of the dispute, the law governing the agreement to arbitrate, and the law governing the arbitration process, or the “curial law.” In Enka Insaat Ve Sanayi AS v OOO Insurance Company Chubb the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom addressed an issue that “has long divided courts and commentators,” both in the United Kingdom and internationally.

Two Moralities of Consistency

A core tenet of the claim that international investment law promotes the rule of law is that it enhances legal certainty for foreign investors. This Chapter seeks to distinguish between tolerable consistency deficiencies in investment treaty arbitration and more structural inconsistencies that are inimical to the rule of law.

Arbitration and Rule Production

Arbitration has been criticized as displacing cases from the public courts and thereby reducing the production of court precedent. Moreover, while arbitral awards might substitute for court precedent, the standard view is that arbitrators have little incentive to issue awards that produce legal rules because such awards mostly benefit parties to future disputes. This Article critically examines both the hypotheses, filling in gaps in existing legal literature and also offering new theoretical and empirical insights for a comprehensive account of arbitration and rule production.