Rethinking International Commercial Arbitration: Towards Default Arbitration

Arbitration is the normal and preferred mode for resolving international commercial disputes. Its essential advantage over national courts is that is offers neutrality of adjudication, as each party avoids litigating in the court of origin of the other.

Despite this unique and fundamental advantage, arbitration is only available where both parties have consented to it. This innovative book proposes a fundamental rethink of this assumption and argues that arbitration should become the default mode of resolution in international commercial disputes.

The book first discusses the most important arguments against this proposal and responds to them. In particular, it addresses the issue of the legitimacy of arbitrators and the compatibility of the idea with constitutional guarantees afforded by European human rights law and US constitutional law.

The book then presents several models of non-consensual arbitration that could be implemented to afford neutral adjudication in disputes between parties originating from different jurisdictions, to offer an additional alternative forum in the doctrine of forum non conveniens, or to save judicial costs.

The first dedicated exploration into the groundbreaking concept of arbitration as a default mode of resolution of international commercial disputes, Rethinking International Commercial Arbitration will appeal to scholars, students and practitioners in arbitration and international litigation