International Commercial Arbitration, Volume I

Abstract

Encyclopaedic is too modest a word to describe the second edition of Gary Born’s treatise on International Commercial Arbitration. Volume I alone covers a remarkably broad swath of territory. Under the deceptively simple title International Arbitration Agreements, Volume I tackles the history of international arbitration, the legal framework within which it operates, the choice of law issues that arise in dealing with international arbitration agreements, the interpretation, effects, and enforcement of such agreements, and such specialized subjects as the separability doctrine, arbitrability, competence-competence, and the treatment of non-signatories. This is the book with which every researcher on questions of international arbitration will begin, and with which many will finish. The geographic reach of the new edition is as impressive as the breadth of its substantive content. Under each of the topics he tackles, Born not only distils general rules from the jurisprudence, practice, and commentaries of the major international arbitration centres—principally England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, the USA, and countries that have adopted the UNCITRAL Model Law (‘Model Law’)—but also draws illustrations and contrasting examples from parts of the world that have historically seen less international arbitration and have thus developed less law on the subject.