Abuse of Rights in International Arbitration

International arbitration has seen an increase in abusive practices affecting both substantive and procedural elements of arbitrations.

In particular, a rise has been seen in two examples of abuse of rights: the first is an increased volume of cases where parties restructure their investments in an abusive manner by altering one of its features purely to gain access to ICSID arbitration; the second is the increasingly common practice of instigating parallel arbitral proceedings, where inconsistent decisions pose a risk to standards of fairness. In the absence of detailed guidance addressing the core elements of the principle, the application of abuse of rights is left to the discretion of arbitral tribunals.

Abuse of Rights in International Arbitration covers this topic in depth, examining the legal basis and core elements of abuse of rights, and analysing relevant case law to address how the principle may affect administration of arbitral justice. Arguing for abuse of rights to be applied as a general principle of law, the author expertly examines how it could applied in both international commercial and investment arbitration to effectively tackle abusive practices.