Originally from Reflections on International Arbitration - Essays in Honour of Professor George Bermann

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I. THE APPLICABILITY OF INTERNATIONAL UNIFORM SUBSTANTIVE LAW CONVENTIONS IN LITIGATION

According to one commentator, in arbitration, 

choice of law plays a smaller role than might be expected from the large volume of scholarly writing on the subject. This fact, too, I believe suggests something about the law in general – substantial similarity in result reached by legal systems with quite different points of departure, and convergence in the international arena that seems to be helped along by the process of [arbitration].  

In this author’s view, these assertions cannot be shared. Arbitrators are not the catalysts of convergence, as their awards do not have a modifying impact on the domestic law they apply. And the “substantial similarity in result reached by legal systems with quite different points of departure” is, if nothing else, overstated.