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

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Unlike other contributors to this Festschrift, I am not an expert in arbitration.  Instead, my perspective is that of a long-time member of The American Law Institute.  I have been a member of the ALI since 1974.  Especially since my retirement from active practice in 2013, I have participated in all of the ALI’s projects, reading all the drafts and (insofar as possible) attending all the meetings.  It was in that capacity that I had a ringside view of the work that George Bermann and his Associate Reporters did on the ALI’s Restatement of the U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor-State Arbitration.

Work on the Restatement started in 2007.  It culminated in the approval of the Proposed Final Draft by the ALI membership at the ALI’s Annual Meeting in May 2019.  The intervening dozen years were marked by an enormous amount of work on the part of George and his colleagues.  Almost every year, they prepared a substantial draft and shepherded it through the ALI process.