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

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Professor Bermann’s many contributions to the U.S. arbitration community, and to the larger international arbitration community, are difficult to overstate. As the Jean Monnet and Walter Gelhorn Professor of Law at Columbia University and Professeur affilié at Sciences Po, Professor Bermann has been the teacher of generations of students, many of whom have made careers as international arbitration specialists.  As the holder of too many distinguished affiliations with arbitral institutions to list, and as the Chief Reporter of the Restatement of the Law on U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor-State Arbitration, Professor Bermann has taught international arbitration much more broadly, including by means of testimony before the U.S. Congress and the British House of Lords.  Professor Bermann has, for many years, been among the most sought-after arbitrators of important international disputes.

Professor Bermann’s energy and effectiveness as an advocate have perhaps been less visible than his other roles, but of great consequence for the law respecting arbitration in the United States.  This paper highlights just a few of Professor Bermann’s many amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court, namely his advocacy in Henry Schein v. Archer and White Sales  and BG Group v. Argentina  in which the “gateway” issues that Professor Bermann rigorously analyzed in his well- known 2012 Yale law review article  were significantly at issue.