Treaty Interpretation In Investment Arbitration by J. Romesh Weeramantry

Abstract

Arbitration of International Business Disputes – Studies in Law and Practice by William W. Park. Published by Oxford University Press, 2012, 2nd Edition, ISBN 978-0199657131 (904 pages) According to the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, ‘every lawsuit is a story’, suggesting that every book – and perhaps every book review – should also have a narrative through-line.1 Given such august advice, it is perhaps not inappropriate to begin this review essay with a phrase made familiar by the Brothers Grimm: once upon a time … 2 Once upon a time, international commercial arbitration was viewed by the legal and business communities as a brash young upstart, an innovative but somewhat untested ‘alternative’ to more legitimate forms of dispute resolution: the prince to litigation's king, to coin a Grimmian metaphor. Over the course of several decades, as arbitration's benefits became increasingly well-known and well-respected, courts, commentators and counsel began to change their beliefs about the legitimacy of the procedure. Today, arbitration no longer constitutes an ‘alternative’ to litigation, but is instead the preferred means by which to resolve legal disputes in cross-border commerce.3 Just because something is popular does not mean that it is also mature, however, as any observer of the music and entertainment world can attest. Therefore, those who wish to determine whether arbitration has evolved into a mature form of dispute resolution must look beyond mere usage levels. One way to determine the maturity of a particular area of law is to consider the number and quality of judicial decisions rendered in that particular field. Based on this criterion, international commercial arbitration has done very well, since arbitral matters have been considered thousands of times over by courts from around the world, generating a vast body of increasingly sophisticated jurisprudence.4 Arbitral tribunals have generated an even greater number of arbitral awards, which are often made publicly available in denatured (depersonalized) form.5 A second method of gauging the maturity of …