The advantages of parties settling their disputes are self-evident. While there are several settlement facilitation techniques that arbitral tribunals have developed (see Carrara, Sussman & Berger and Vysudilova & Kirtley), arbitral institutions have remained in the background. At the 8th ICC European Conference in March 2024, the message conveyed by the parties was loud and…

On March 7, 2023, the virtual conference organized by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), as well as the Latin American Arbitration Association (ALARB) titled “Dispute Resolution in the Digital Economy” took place, within the context of UNCITRAL’s Working Group II works on dispute resolution and digital economy. During this conference, arbitration…

In 2021, ICSID conducted an extensive survey of dispute resolution clauses in bilateral investment treaties (BITs), free trade agreements (FTAs) and other treaties (including model treaties). The data set comprised more than 900 treaties, from which nearly 350 clauses were identified for closer analysis. The overarching goal of the survey was to see to what…

There may have been a lot of government restrictions limiting physical gatherings this year, but these restrictions surely did not limit our enthusiasm in gathering (virtually and intellectually) for the first-ever United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (‘UNCITRAL’) Working Group III (‘WGIII’) Pre-Intersessional Meeting. The virtual event, with the theme “The Use of Mediation…

On November 16th, 2020, the AAA-ICDR hosted a webinar entitled In-House Counsel’s Virtual Roundtable as part of New York Arbitration Week. The session comprised of in-house counsel from various industries discussed their views and approach to international arbitration from their respective fields. It was moderated by Eric P. Tuchmann, the Senior Vice President, General Counsel…

Of the six States that have ratified the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (“Convention”) only Singapore seems to have made any requisite preparation for its implementation, by passing the Singapore Convention Mediation Act in February 2020. Yet, following the Convention’s entry into force on 12 September 2020, forthcoming developments in…

In their reform discussions, States and arbitration institutions have been exploring the potential for investor-State mediation to work alongside arbitration, or even to replace it altogether for some disputes. While investor-State mediation has strengths relative to arbitration, any reform must carefully integrate mediation with existing processes and reform efforts.1)This post builds on: Esmé Shirlow, ‘The…

Arbitration has undoubtedly become the dominant international procedure for settling investor-State disputes. Over the years, we have published various posts on the Blog that have considered intersections and tensions between arbitration and other, alternative, forms of investor-State dispute settlement (‘ISDS’). To mark this month’s entry into force of the Singapore Convention on Mediation, our series…