Originally from American Review of International Arbitration - ARIA

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 I. SETTING THE SCENE

The world economic order has recently witnessed an unparalleled explosion of global trade and investment opportunities. On the heels of such activity, international commercial disputes inexorably follow. In commercial relationships, particularly those with an international dimension or element, disagreements assume added complexity as there are manifold fora competing to be the situs for the resolution of such disputes.

The selection of the venue for the resolution of a potential dispute is normally influenced by the parties to a contract in any number of ways. Some of the methods involve actions taken prior to litigation by an ex ante inclusion of a foreign jurisdiction clause  in the contract, identifying the courts of a particular country as having exclusive or non-exclusive jurisdiction to entertain any disputes arising from such contracts. This would normally be the preferred forum of one of the parties. Other methods involve actions that may be taken after the existence of a dispute or the accrual of a cause of action, in some cases after the commencement of litigation. It is not uncommon for a party to seek to persuade a court that it is an inconvenient or inappropriate forum to resolve the dispute.  Instituting an action in derogation of an agreed forum is another means of influencing the forum for the resolution of disputes arising from international commercial contracts.

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[…]there appears to be an emerging trend in Nigerian courts of subjugating the Arbitration Act to the Admiralty Jurisdiction Act (AJA) by refusing to give effect to foreign arbitration clauses in bills of lading. In this regard, developments in the United States, where the discourse on conflicting congressional intent in relation to the forum for the resolution of bill of lading disputes came to a head in the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Vimar Seguros y Reaseguros, S.A. v. M/V Sky Reefer,  will be used as a referent.

Naturally there is concern about this trend which has the potential of threatening arbitral integrity regarding bill of lading disputes in Nigeria. The central thrust of this article is that such concern is unfounded, and also undertakes the significant task of mapping, contextualizing and highlighting the challenges facing developing economies in their desire to be accepted as reputable fora for the resolution of international commercial disputes generally, and bill of lading disputes in particular.