Originally from World Arbitration And Mediation Review (WAMR)

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TRENDS AND CHALLENGES IN

INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION:
TWO SURVEYS OF IN-HOUSE COUNSEL
OF MAJOR CORPORATIONS
Loukas Mistelis∗ and Crina Mihaela Baltag

I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
Different standpoints, conflicting commercial expectations, legal
and cultural backgrounds and approaches, or even political and
financial situations make disputes in international transactions a
natural occurrence. Some of these disputes end up adjudicated by
international litigation or arbitration or, in some instances, resolved by
other forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). The growing
support for international arbitration (and other forms of ADR) lies
primarily in the flexibility and finality of the process and in the option
given to the disputing parties to choose their neutral(s). International
commercial disputes are often resolved effectively by arbitration. In
fact, if one were to look at statistics of major arbitration institutions,
the inevitable conclusion is that disputing parties refer most major
international commercial disputes to international arbitration rather
than national courts.
One may define international arbitration as:
[…] a specially established mechanism for the final and
binding determination of disputes, concerning a contractual
or other relationship with an international element, by
independent arbitrators, in accordance with procedures,
structures and substantive legal or non-legal standards
chosen directly or indirectly by the parties.1
While many publications and other print and electronic resources
address the law and practice of international arbitration, many
questions remain unanswered: how much do we know about