The American Influences on International Commercial Arbitration Doctrinal Developments and Discovery Methods

This text traces the contours of U.S. doctrinal developments concerning international commercial arbitration. It explores international commercial arbitration as a bridge that creates symmetry between what the author perceives as an anomaly arising from the disparities between the monolithic framework arising from economic globalization and a fragmented global judicial counterpart.

Specifically, American common law discovery precepts are analyzed through the prism of the fundamental precepts of party-autonomy, predictability, uniformity, and transparency of spender, which the author contends to be the rudimentary tenets of both the American common law procedural rubric and the very principles that international commercial arbitration seeks not only to preserve but to enhance. Therefore, as the author asserts, the discovery process endemic to American common law comports more closely with international commercial arbitration both procedurally and theoretically than with those of the ‘taking of evidence’ methodology commonly used in international commercial arbitrations held under the auspices of arbitral institutional bodies.

• Takes a novel approach by asserting that U.S. common law discovery should be incorporated into international commercial arbitration
• Identifies the key contributors of U.S. doctrinal developments in commercial arbitration as all foundational case-law is examined
• The scholarship and novel thesis embodied in this work will be of benefit to both practitioners and academics