The Law and Practice of International Commercial Arbitration by Alan Redfern and Martin Hunter

Abstract

The Law and Practice of International Commercial Arbitration by Alan Redfern Ma (Cantab), FCIArb. and Martin Hunter MA (Cantab), FCIArb. Published by Sweet & Maxwell, London (1986, xliii and 462 pp., incl. Preface, Tables of Contents, Cases and Arbitration Rules, Appendices and Index ). Hardback £64 . The continued evolution of the rules applicable to international commercial arbitration – as seen most vividly in the still recent UNCITRAL Model Law – and the steady expansion of international arbitration as a means for resolving international commercial disputes, amply justify a re-assessment of the state of the art. In Law and Practice of International Commercial Arbitration , two experienced practitioners offer a readable, yet comprehensive, synthesis of the hybrid that is international commercial arbitration: a private process with a public effect. The notable virtue of this treatise is that it manages skillfully to combine exploration of the diversity of the private process with succinct exposition of the public context created by the national laws and international conventions which permit room for imagination (while also fixing the limits). The authors' theme is that, in order to realise international arbitration's potential, practitioners must master its flexibility. This treatise is, though, much more than a ‘how to’ of international arbitration; indeed, Messrs. Redfern and Hunter are most impressive when assessing the variety of the private process precisely in the context of the applicable rules, through discussions which succeed at being both pragmatic and academic. Law and Practice of International Commercial Arbitration presents its subject in nine sections: (1) a lengthy opening introduction, in which the authors introduce the various forms of international arbitration ( ad hoc and institutional, private and quasi-public) and the national laws (most particularly English and Swiss) and international conventions which affect arbitration, and offer as well a refreshingly hard-headed assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of arbitration relative to litigation; (2) a discussion of the applicable law, which concentrates on the options available to parties (and arbitrators) in choosing the governing substantive law; (3) a practical section on the drafting of arbitration clauses, which offers, in addition to a …