Originally from Pro-Arbitration Revisited: A Tribute to Professor George Bermann from his Students Over the Years

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I. INTRODUCTION

My studies at Columbia Law School allowed me to meet and learn from the best arbitration scholars and practitioners. Among them, the key figure was Professor Bermann, one of the most prominent figures in the international arbitration community. As his student and research assistant, I experienced his enthusiasm to assist, advise and teach; this was not only restricted to arbitration issues but transcended legal matters. I also had the opportunity to understand how he sees arbitration. Professor Bermann has not only an exhaustive knowledge of arbitration, but over and above that he has a clear sight of its role as an ADR method, its challenges and the main dangers against it.

As Professor Bermann argued in his well-known article on the meaning of “Pro-Arbitration”, the efficacy of arbitration depends not only on the attitude of its users, but also of the courts. Indeed, for arbitration court review is one of the most important factors. In this essay, I focus on the annulment of awards. The availability of annulment proceedings is essential to ensure the legitimacy of the award. A system that excludes these court proceedings is not sustainable. In addition, a system that allows parties to exclude certain grounds via agreement would have unpredictable results, as there is a clear overlap between “disposable” grounds and “non-disposable” grounds.