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Forum Shopping And The Cost Of Access To Justice: Cost And Certainty In International Commercial Litigation And Arbitration, Ali Assareh

Ali Assareh

International commercial transactions sometimes give rise to disputes. Resolving these disputes requires access to justice (whether through litigation or arbitration), and access to justice costs money⎯in some cases, enough money to overshadow the substance of the underlying dispute. Knowing this, international commercial parties almost always include a “dispute resolution” clause in their contracts. Yet, despite their prevalence and importance in managing future arbitration and litigation costs, dispute resolution clauses are often poorly negotiated and hastily drafted, perhaps because some factors that affect the cost of resolving future disputes are not known by the parties ex ante. But, while some factors …