Common Law v. Civil Law in International Arbitration: The Beginning or the End?

Abstract

The presentation of the Prague Rules on the Efficient Conduct of Proceedings in International Arbitration on 14 December 2018 has revived the age-old debate about the existence of a common law-civil law divide in international arbitration. This article examines the impact of the Prague Rules on the transnational paradigm of international arbitral procedure, clarifies their nature as an alternative repository of state-of-the-art techniques to save time and costs in the conduct of international arbitrations, and suggests to give up the traditional distinctions, which are rooted in domestic legal systems.