ILA Final Report on Res Judicata and Arbitration

Abstract

1. This is the Final Report of the ILA International Commercial Arbitration Committee on the topic of res judicata and arbitration. This Report should be read together with the Committee’s Interim Report presented and adopted at the Berlin Conference in August 2004 (‘Interim Report’).1 In this Final Report, references will be made in footnotes to the Interim Report, the content of which is incorporated in this Final Report. 2. The Committee has agreed upon certain Recommendations as to res judicata in relation to international commercial arbitration. This Final Report provides a brief commentary on each. This Final Report is followed by a list of relevant literature additional to the literature cited in the Interim Report. 3. These Recommendations are the culmination of a four year study of res judicata by the Committee, starting just before the New Delhi Conference in 2002. The Recommendations have been discussed and agreed by the Committee at meetings in Auckland (October 2004), Geneva (March 2005), Paris (May 2005), Prague (September 2005) and Zurich (January 2006) and discussed at the Conference Working Session in Toronto (June 2006). A number of Committee members have made written comments or have sent documentation regarding the project. Also, scholars and practitioners have sent observations regarding the Interim Report. The Chairman and the Rapporteur wish to thank all diose who have contributed to this project. 4. In conducting this project, the Committee has noted that there was both academic and practical interest and a need for analysis and recommendations regarding res judicata in international commercial arbitration. 5. The Recommendations do not intend to be comprehensive, but only to cover some aspects of res judicata in international commercial arbitration. The Committee believed that a compromise was to be struck between those aspects addressed by the Recommendations (where it considered that transnational rules could be developed) and …