Most fields of law provide guidance on how courts decide cases. In contrast, arbitration law tells judges when not to decide disputes, in deference to private decision-makers selected by the litigants. At such moments, arbitration law normally includes two limbs: first, to hold parties to their...

In resolution of international contract disputes, arbitrators may sometimes show greater fidelity than courts to the parties' intentions and established rule of a chosen law, foregoing any policy-making function similar to that sometimes asserted by common law judges. In adjusting international...

Depending on context and content, a regulatory framework can either help or hinder efforts to enhance aggregate social and economic welfare. Lively debate has arisen with respect to the net effects of two recent sets of directives for lawyer comportment in cross-border arbitration: the...

A tentative explanation of arbitration law might begin with recognition of the tension between two sets of expectations. First, courts should give effect to arbitration commitments obtained through informed consent. Second, judges must monitor arbitration's basic procedural integrity, which...

Enacted almost a century ago, as a simple procedural device to enforce arbitration in federal courts, the Federal Arbitration Act has now been pressed into service as a body of substantive law that binds state courts as well, requiring that arbitration agreements be enforced on the same footing...

The disorienting effect of language finds illustration in the principle that arbitrators may rule on their own authority. Often expressed as Kompetenz-Kompetenz (literally “jurisdiction on jurisdiction”), the precept has been applied to questions such as who must arbitrate, what must be...

Although arguments exist that fiscal disputes should remain beyond private adjudication, implicating as they do the sovereign prerogative of revenue raising, the practice proves very much to the contrary. Arbitration of tax-related disputes proves very much a reality despite doctrinal...

Often invoked as a metaphor for decline and decay, autumn also carries a sense of robust maturity bringing fruitful harvest and new beginnings. The season's double symbolism evokes rival visions of arbitration today. Some observers see a golden age of cheap and cheerful proceedings as replaced...

Like consummated romance, arbitration rests on consent. An agreement of some sort waives each side's right to invoke the jurisdiction of otherwise competent courts. Nevertheless, arbitrators do hear cases involving entities and individuals that never signed an arbitration clause. In cross-border...

An arbitrator's primary duty remains the delivery of an accurate award, resting on a reasonably ascertainable picture of reality. Litigants wanting only quick or cheap solutions can roll dice, and have no need of lawyers. Evidentiary tools in arbitration should balance sensitivity toward cost...