International Commercial Litigation : An Asian Perspective

This paper focuses on the legal transaction costs which operate as a significant non-tariff barrier to mutually beneficial exchange in trade and investment between nations. It sets out the role, functions and advantages of the international regime for commercial arbitration, based on the UNCITRAL Model Law and the New York Convention for Enforcement of Arbitral Awards. The paper discusses a range of mechanisms to harmonise civil procedure and to enhance co-operation between courts on cross-border issues, including: the Model Principles of Transnational Civil Procedure of the American Law Institute and UNIDROIT; the incidence of venue disputation; the Hague Choice of Court Convention; the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency; the Hague Evidence Convention and Hague Service Convention and the mechanisms for enforcement of foreign judgments. The emergence of a new conception of judicial comity and of an international sense of collegiality in the context of globalisation is discussed