Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

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At a time when all the institutions of international dealings are being scrutinized for their possible use in the plans for ordered peace in a world of turmoil, it is surely important to review the experience and to appraise the capacity of arbitration in the settlement of disputes between states. Whenever an international dispute arises, by far the most immediate reaction by the general public (and to an alarming extent even by supposedly knowledgeable authorities) is to present the dispute to the International Court of Justice. The Permanent Court of Arbitration, let alone fully private arbitration, is overshadowed in their thinking. This is perhaps due in some measure to the International Court's affiliation with the United Nations and consequently the tremendous publicity it receives as a result. Fortunately, there has been a resurgence in the use of arbitration in the international sphere, attributable to a variety of reasons. The following are the primary factors, fully developed in the body of this paper, encouraging parties to resort to international arbitration rather than to the International Court of Justice: