Law Commons^™

Reforming World Bank Dispute Resolution: Icsid In Context, Susan Franck

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

During a tumultuous moment in history with shifts in power and politics, international dispute settlement stands at a crossroads. In theory, international dispute settlement should not institutionalize abuses of power, rely upon a monolithic one-size-fits-all model, or be a waste of resources, which will inevitably generate stakeholder dissatisfaction. Rather, dispute resolution should reflect both a commitment to the rule of law and equal treatment that sustains nuanced, fair, and just procedures most likely to provide results of substantive quality. Against this backdrop and with the major reforms concluded in July 2022, this article explores the reality of dispute resolution at …

Swords Into Plowshares: A Pilgrimage For The Css Alabama, William W. Park

Faculty Scholarship

During the American Civil War, Britain sold ships to the Southern Confederacy in breach of neutrality obligations, triggering a dispute with the United States carrying threats of armed conflict. Some American politicians saw the dispute as an opportunity to annex Canada, then a weak assemblage of British colonies. Ultimately, arbitration in Geneva averted war, opening an era of long Anglo-American cooperation. The historical consequence of this landmark 1872 arbitration remains difficult to overstate. In addition to its diplomatic importance, the case introduced significant procedural precedents for international arbitration, including dissenting options, reasoned awards, party-appointed arbitrators, collegial deliberations, and arbitrators’ declarations …

The Role Of International Rules In Blockchain-Based Cross-Border Commercial Disputes, Tonya M. Evans

Law Faculty Scholarship

[excerpt] The concept of online dispute resolution (ODR) is not new. 1 But, with the advent of Web 3.0, the distributed web that facilitates pseudonymous and cross-border transactions via blockchain's distributed ledger technology, 2 the idea of, and pressing need for, appropriate dispute resolution models for blockchain-based disputes to support this novel system of distributed consensus and trust of which blockchain proponents boast, is a primary concern in rapid development. 3 The common goal of each project is to utilize smart contracts to facilitate "superior, quicker[,] and less expensive proceedings by eliminating so many of the tedious and protracted trappings …

Legitimacy In International Dispute Resolution In The Age Of Anti-Globalization, Nationalism, And Isolationism: How Geographical And Legal Cultural Diversity On The International Bench Can Promote Regional And International Cooperation, Alina Ng

Journal Articles

International law and dispute resolution mechanisms can do a lot to promote cooperation and build trust among nation-states by addressing and correcting implicit biases and cognitive errors that lead to global problems instead of believing that globalization and market forces are the primary contributors to these challenges. International legal systems can be the mechanism through which the international community creates conditions that facilitate international cooperation and collaboration. However, clear legal rules that set the framework for multinational and international cooperation may have to be introduced and implemented. While international courts and tribunals can promote multilateral and international cooperation by acknowledging …

Arb-Med-Arb In Cross-Border Disputes, Janet C. Checkley, Nadja Alexander

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

To satisfy the needs of an increasingly diverse set of legal cultures meeting in the global marketplace today, dispute resolution mechanisms must continually evolve. One of the recent solutions to arise out of the blending of legal cultures is evolutionary rather than revolutionary, because it is in fact not new at all: multi-tiered dispute resolution.

The Fine Print Of The Mexican Energy Reform, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Faculty Scholarship

Five years ago, when Mexico transformed its energy sector, most commentators were worried about the government’s capacity to implement the reform. What would the upstream contracts look like? Would the auctions be transparent? How would international companies react? After two successful auction rounds, 107 signed contracts, and the creation of viable regulatory agencies to manage and monitor the reform agenda, the questions have changed. Today, Mexico’s capacity to implement energy reforms and attract foreign investment is no longer in doubt. Today, the most pressing questions about the reform concern its long-term sustainability. Can it survive the Mexican electoral cycles? Will …

Feel The Earth Move – Shifts In The International Dispute Resolution Landscape, Eunice Chua

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This blog post discusses the themes in international dispute resolution that emerged from a panel on 25 July 2018 at the 2018 UNCITRAL Emergence Conference, moderated by Professor Nadja Alexander, CEO of the Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy.

A Contribution To The Conversation On Mixing The Modes Of Mediation And Arbitration: Of Definitional Consistency And Process Structure, Eunice Chua

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

One of the trends that has been growing in importance in international commercial dispute resolution has been the combining and mixing of modes, particularly of mediation and arbitration. Surveys of users indicate that the reason for this growth has been the perception that mixing of non-adjudicative and adjudicative modes can help to achieve certain process goals, such as international enforceability, cost-effectiveness and relationship preservation. This article first suggests an approach towards articulating the myriad ways that mediation and arbitration may be combined, focusing on mediation followed by arbitration (med-arb), arbitration followed by mediation (arb-med), and opening mediation windows in the …

International Adjudicative Bodies, Chiara Giorgetti

Law Faculty Publications

The past fifty years have seen a tremendous rise in international litigation. There are more parties who are more prone to use international law mechanisms to resolve their disputes, and more international actors have more forums available to them to which they can bring their disputes. Indeed, the multifaceted growth of international dispute resolution is one of international law's most important and interesting recent developments.

At the heart of this development are international adjudicative bodies, a diverse group of international bodies that have a common dispute settlement function, the outcome of which is binding on the parties. This chapter examines …

Integrated Conflict Management Design Workbook : كتاب التصميم المتكامل لإدارة الخلافات (Arabic), Nadja Alexander

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Mediation Series is a set of three guides that will help policy-makers, organizations and practitioners build mediation practice and culture. The Series include Mediation Essentials, Integrated Conflict Management Design Workbook, and Making Mediation Law. Mediation Essentials serves as a complete orientation guide to ADR in general and to mediation. Making Mediation Law offers a robust perspective on how to design mediation policy and legislation. Guidance in this area is in high demand and scarce (besides the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Conciliation and its Guide, there aren’t many other comprehensive resources). We hope that Making Mediation Law will effectively …

Mediation Essentials: The Definitive Deskbook, Nadja Alexander, Jean-Francois Roberge, Fatma Ibrahim

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Mediation is one of the most frequently used alternative dispute resolution processes worldwide. Mediation provides faster, cheaper, and better solutions than a traditional court decision can. Benefits are important for individuals as well as for disputing businesses from the private sector and for public sector institutions. Understanding the principles, process, and skills of mediation is essential for anyone whose professional role involves managing disputes of any kind. Mediation Essentials comprises five chapters as follows: 1) Chapter 1 is about How to Manage and Control Disputes and Alternative Dispute Resolution; Chapter 2 describes on How to Make the Most of Mediation; …

Between Legitimacy And Control: Challenges And Recusals Of Arbitrators And Judges In International Courts And Tribunals, Chiara Giorgetti

Law Faculty Publications

Challenges of judges and arbitrators in international courts and tribunals is a vastly understudied subject. To correct this imbalance, this Article makes three novel contributions. First, and for the first time, it details and compares challenge procedures across a variety of international courts and tribunals, including both permanent and ad hoc institutions. Second, it provides unique data on challenges and provides a detailed analysis of their outcomes. Third, it makes two concrete recommendations that should be adopted as baseline requirements to improve and harmonize existing challenge procedures: (1) it proposes that an external or semi-external institution take decisions on challenges, …

Introducing The 'New Handshake' To Expand Remedies And Revive Responsibility In Ecommerce, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

There was a time when individuals would meet in person to make purchases and do deals. They would discuss the terms, assess the trustworthiness and character of their contracting partners, and conclude the deal with a handshake. The handshake helped ensure the enforcement of the deal without need for the rule of law or legal power. That handshake was one’s bond — it was a personal trust mark. With the emergence of eCommerce, however, that handshake has nearly disappeared along with the sense of responsibility it inspired. Accordingly, this article discusses how this has impacted consumers’ access to remedies regarding …

Book Review, Anna Spain

Publications

No abstract provided.

Overview Of Panel: Judges, Diplomats, And Peacebuilders: Evaluating International Dispute Resolution As A System, Anna Spain

Publications

No abstract provided.

Brief 7: Building An International Court For The Environment: A Conceptual Framework, Philip Riches, Stuart A. Bruce

Governance and Sustainability Issue Brief Series

This issue brief considers the role and nature of existing and potential international dispute resolution fora in relation to international environmental law. It addresses impediments at the international level, such as limited access to justice by non-state actors and the lack of technical and scientific capability. As a conceptual paper, it highlights two possible remedial options: an international environmental tribunal and an international environmental court.

Examining The International Judicial Function: International Courts As Dispute Resolvers, Anna Spain

Publications

This article examines the judicial function of international courts by considering both what it is and what it ought to be. The article identifies and describes two distinct functions - dispute settlement and peace promotion - and explores the tensions that exist in pursuing these two aims. It then introduces a third way of understanding the international judicial function that respects international courts’ traditional role as dispute settlers while allowing for their more engaged and proactive function as peacemakers. This third approach conceptualizes that the role of international courts is to resolve disputes. Doing so requires understanding courts as entities …

Beyond Adjudication: Resolving International Resource Disputes In An Era Of Climate Change, Anna Spain

Publications

This Article examines the role of international adjudication as a mechanism for resolving international disputes and promoting global peace and security in an era of climate change. The central claim is that adjudication has limitations that make it ineffective as a tool for resolving international resource disputes. The Article argues that adjudication is limited due to source and process challenges and it illustrates this claim by reviewing cases adjudicated by the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration and other international courts and tribunals. Four categories of adjudication limitation emerge: a) cases where the parties refused to submit …

Integration Matters: Rethinking The Architecture Of International Dispute Resolution, Anna Spain

Publications

International law promotes global peace and security by providing mechanisms for the pacific settlement of international disputes. This Article examines these mechanisms and their place in the architecture of the international dispute resolution ("IDR") system. The Article identifies three core deficiencies of the IDR system that limit its effectiveness and capacity. First, the international legal system has prioritized the development of adjudication over other forms of dispute resolution; the judicialization of international disputes and the proliferation of courts and tribunals evidence this. However, adjudication is limited in its capacity to resolve disputes that involve non-state parties and extra-legal issues. This …

Legitimacy And International Adjudicative Bodies, Nienke Grossman

All Faculty Scholarship

This article proposes a theory of legitimacy tailored to international courts and tribunals. In Part II of this paper, the article defines an "international adjudicative body" as a dispute resolution mechanism - also called a "court" or "tribunal" - which decides disputes between litigants, at least one of whom must be a state, and comments on this definitional choice. The analysis in this article is limited only to adjudicative bodies where states are involved as litigants because a different set of legitimacy-influencing factors may be present when only private parties are involved. Next, it lays out a theory of legitimacy …

Using International Dispute Resolution To Address The Compliance Question In International Law, Anna Spain

Publications

A fundamental critique of international law is that it fails to ensure compliance and, thus, has limited influence on state behavior. Existing compliance theories consider how interests, norms and legal process impact states. Within the legal process school, theories either narrowly define process as methods that achieve a legal aim or broadly consider diplomatic activities without connecting them to the structural elements of process. Thus, despite the prolific scholarship in this area, understanding of how an international dispute resolution process, such as the Six-Party Talks, influences state behavior, such as North Korea’s actions toward nuclear disarmament, remains limited.

To address …

Introduction To The Symposium Issue On The Americanization Of International Dispute Resolution, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

With the end of the Cold War and the emergence of the United States as the world's only superpower, we have heard expressions of concern about the great weight of American influence in so many aspects of international life. One area of concern is America's influence on the law and processes of international dispute resolution (IDR). Of all the practice areas in IDR, practitioners and scholars of international arbitration have had the most detailed discussions on this theme to date. Their greatest worry is the growing tendency toward American litigation style in a process that is neither American nor litigation. …

Resolution Of International Conflicts, Sompong Sucharitkul

Publications

This year another area of international legal developments is added to our annual survey of international and comparative legal problems, namely, international dispute resolutions. I intend to select certain aspects of the salient features of legal developments in the area of international dispute resolution. An endeavor will be made to present an overview of three dimensions of dispute resolution, viz., (1) inter-governmental disputes; (2) mixed governmental and private-sector disputes; and (3) transnational disputes of private nongovernmental character.

Book Review, S. James Anaya

Publications

No abstract provided.