Book review: Frank-Bernd Weigand: PractitionerТs Handbook on International Arbitration - SAR 2003 - 1
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Stockholm Arbitration Report (SAR) - (Individual Back Volumes)
Stockholm Arbitration Report (SAR) - (Individual Back Issue)
Preview Page SAR 2003 - 1
This book is a bit different. We already have in our libraries works
which survey within one modest volume the theory and practice of
international arbitration. We also have reviews of the main institutional
rules. Of course the expositions of each domestic system of arbitration law
are myriad; and there are a number of encyclopaedias, offering a world tour.
Finally our shelves sag under the weight of law review scholarship on the
deliciously familiar subjects of academic debate and analyses of the
landmark decisions which bring glory to our subject – perhaps none more
controversial than Michael Kerr’s triumphant Macau Sardines case. This
book combines all of that, within a modest 1,300 pages.
The handbook aims to provide the practitioner in international trade
with the support required both when involved in drafting the dispute
resolution clause – litigation or arbitration, if arbitration, ad hoc or
institutional, if institutional which, language, seat and so on – and when
acting as counsel when a dispute has actually arisen. It is structured as
follows. First we have an introduction by the distinguished editor, Dr.
Frank-Bernd Weigand. This is followed by a commentary on the most
important rules and instruments of international arbitration. Practitioners
then give an account of what is actually involved in conducting an
arbitration in their country. They explain the national arbitration law of a
number of the main seats of arbitration. The book concludes with an
account of the Uncitral Model Law.
Dr. Weigand’s introduction uses a broad brush to map out the terrain.
He examines the differences between litigation and arbitration and outlines
the relationship between the courts and the arbitration process. We have un
peu d’histoire – an account of the growth of arbitration and the great
landmarks – the Geneva and New York Conventions, the Uncitral Model
Law and the IBA Rules of Evidence. Dr. Weigand describes the differences
between ad hoc and institutional arbitration and gives an account of the
arbitration rules of the main institutions – the ICC, LCIA, AAA and
Uncitral.