American Diversity in International Arbitration 2003-2013 (Pre-Publication Draft)

Abstract

When I was approached to return to issues of diversity in international arbitration, I decided to expand on the methodology I used in the 2003-2004 period in two earlier articles on American minorities in international arbitration. This work is an update and expansion of the work that went into my articles Benjamin G. Davis, The Color Line in International Commercial Arbitration: An American Perspective, (presented at the American Bar Association, Dispute Resolution Section Mid-Year meeting April 16, 2004), 14 American Review of International Arbitration (Columbia University) 461 (2004), Benjamin G. Davis, International Commercial Online and Offline Dispute Resolution: Addressing Primacism and Universalism 4 Journal of American Arbitration (Penn State Dickinson/Tulane) 79 (2005), and in the ABA Dispute Resolution Magazine (forthcoming Winter 2014). I examine American diversity in international arbitration across the broader target population for the ABA’s Goal III diversity efforts: American women, American minorities, American lawyers with disabilities, and American LGBTQ lawyers. These four groups are the target population described in the American Bar Association’s Goal III: Eliminate Bias and Enhance Diversity. In addition to sending a survey to 413 international arbitration practitioners of whom I was aware or to whom I was referred and listservs, I contacted a diverse group of international arbitral institutions around the world from some of whom I received data.