The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (“UNIDROIT”), itself set up in 1926 as an off-spin of the League of Nations, has compiled and developed since 1970 a soft law tool, i.e. the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (“UNIDROIT Principles”). Three decades since their first release in 1994, the UNIDROIT Principles have played…

“Dear Arbitrator, This is your hacker. You do not know me, but I already know you quite well. I am silently waiting for my opportunity to simply click and collapse your notebook. I have nothing against you; it is simply that you are a keeper of gold: DATA. And not any type of data; it…

On the occasion of the German-Portuguese International Arbitration Symposium  experienced practitioners in international arbitration described what is going on in their national systems and, to some extent, what is going on in the world. Following Duarte’s introduction and as announced in this conference’s program, Klaus Peter Berger, in his brilliant keynote speech on Civil vs…

The IBA Guidelines on Conflict of Interest in International Arbitration (hereafter, Guidelines) have gained widespread legitimacy across jurisdictions and types of arbitrations. The Guidelines lay down General Standards (Part I) and provide Practical Application List (Part II). Its soft law nature is an example of codification by compilation (Part I) and innovation (Part II). The…

Between February and March 2014, the Survey on the Use of Soft Law Instruments in International Arbitration was open for responses here at Kluwer Arbitration Blog. The users were asked to report on their real-live encounters with the following instruments and notions: IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence, IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest,…