Arbitration of Internal Trust Disputes : The Next Frontier for International Commercial Arbitration?

Although so-called “external” trust disputes have long been subject to both national and international arbitration, recent years have seen increasing interest in “internal” trust arbitration, meaning proceedings that address matters involving trustees and/or beneficiaries. Unfortunately, experts in trust law seldom communicate with experts in arbitration law, which leads to a variety of problems as a matter of both law and policy. If trust arbitration is to flourish, individuals and institutions in both fields must work together to develop a mechanism that complies with the unique requirements of both bodies of law. This Article outlines the importance of trusts in the global marketplace and introduces some of the key concepts and authorities relating to trust arbitration so that experts in international commercial arbitration can appreciate the special challenges in this area of law. In so doing, the Article considers recent legislative, judicial and institutional developments involving trust arbitration, including examples from Europe, Australasia and the Americas, and focuses on the particular problems associated with binding all necessary parties to the arbitration