Contract Law in International Commercial Arbitration: The Case of Suspension of Performance

2009 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 863-896 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Karton

AbstractDespite much attention to the controversial lex mercatoria, international commercial arbitration remains underanalysed as a venue for contract law unification. This article considers a specific case of substantive contract law in arbitration, the remedy of suspension of performance: When will one party's non-performance enable the other party to withhold performance without terminating the contract? In domestic laws, suspension of performance is governed by clearly-defined doctrines; however, it remains unclear whether it constitutes a general principle of international law. This article places suspension in a comparative context, then analyses the published arbitral awards for indications of arbitrators' preferences.

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 242
Author(s):  
Soheila Hashemi ◽  
Nader Mardani

Arbitration is one of the most important solutions to end enmity and replace judicial inquest. As international trading is extended, referring to judgment to solve the conflicts caused by commercial contracts has been rapidly rising which is a result of judgment benefits over justice authorities. Fastness and efficiency, law inquest cost, compromise nature of selecting the referees, and professional selection are among the most evident specifications of arbitration. Furthermore, Iran’s involvement in the most significant judgment case of the last century i.e. the lawsuits filed between the Islamic Republic of Iran the United States of America after the victory of the revolution would double the essentiality of knowing this organization. Judgment may be either individual or organic (permanent) and also the number of referees needs to be one or three. The most important issue in the judge’s inquest is to follow two factors including independence and impartiality from the beginning until the end of the inquest process. Violating these characteristics or the lack of one of both or other descriptions predicted in the arbitration contract would result in its violation by one side of the conflict or both of them. In the present paper, a comparison is conducted between the commonalty and distinction of Iran’s international commercial arbitration in 1376 and international law.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 117-128

International commercial arbitration (ICA) is an alternative way to resolve foreign economic disputes. Initially, arbitration itself was seen as a neutral court in which the parties to the dispute were independent of national courts. Arbitration agreements and decisions must be recognised by national courts without any complications or review procedures. Although granting commercial parties some independence to agree that their dispute will be considered by independent arbitrators is a key principle in ICA, the struggle for supremacy between national laws and national courts on the one hand and the autonomy of the parties and the independence of the international arbitration system on the other continue. Over the years, national laws have sought to control, regulate, interfere with, or support ICA in various ways. To counter attempts to ‘localise’ ICA and promote equality in this area, private, professional institutions and international and intergovernmental organisations have developed a significant body of law designed to ensure self-government and dispute settlement procedures in ICA. Nevertheless, international commercial arbitration cannot exist independently of national jurisdictions. Examining the activities of ICA, it can be seen that the importance and impact of national arbitration laws and national judicial supervision are significantly reduced, but the lex fori still plays an important role in arbitration. Thus, the reform of the normative regulation of international arbitration also affected Ukraine. The article analyses the radical changes proposed by the legislator regarding the procedure for establishing institutional arbitrations, expanding the arbitrability of disputes.


Author(s):  
Yassari Nadjma

This chapter presents Iranian perspectives on the Hague Principles. Generally, private international law is not very developed in Iran, neither in theory nor in practice. This is for diverse reasons: the history and the legacy of the capitulations systems, according to which foreign citizen and entities were exempted from Iranian jurisdiction, is still vividly felt, as is the fear of potential foreign domination. This has nurtured a general suspicion towards the application of foreign law as a gateway for political intervention of foreign powers. Following the revolution of 1979, the political situation and the instability and insecurity of foreign investments have been major impediments to the spread of international commerce between Iran and the rest of the world, diminishing the need to establish efficient private international law tools. This factual situation is mirrored by a poor engagement with international contract law in scholarly writings, which often remain hypothetical and abstract due to the lack of case law. Nowhere in the literature is any reference made to the Hague Principles. Only in the field of international arbitration has there been some movement: in 1997, the Law on International Commercial Arbitration (LICA) was enacted, a code that relies greatly on the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikaël Schinazi

Drawing on a wide range of previously unpublished sources, this unique history of international commercial arbitration in the modern era identifies three periods in its development: the Age of Aspirations (c. 1780–1920), the Age of Institutionalization (1920s–1950s), and the Age of Autonomy (1950s–present). Mikaël Schinazi analyzes the key features of each period, arguing that the history of international commercial arbitration has oscillated between moments of renewal and anxiety. During periods of renewal, new approaches, instruments, and institutions were developed to carry international commercial arbitration forward. These developments were then reined in during periods of anxiety, for fear that international arbitration might be overstepping its bounds. The resulting tension between renewal and anxiety is a key thread running through the evolution of international commercial arbitration. This book fills a key gap in the scholarship for anyone interested in the fields of international arbitration, legal history, and international law.


Author(s):  
Mary B. Ayad

General principles of law are a valid source of law for arbitral tribunals. The Vienna Convention1 allows recourse to general principles of law. In Bilateral Investment Treaty (hereinafter “BIT”) interpretation but also in International Commercial Arbitration (hereinafter “ICA”)/International Investment Arbitration (“hereinafter “IIA”), arbitrators can be guided by the Vienna Convention2 and in so doing may refer to a number of ‘rules’ and norms of ‘international law’ applicable to the relations between states, such as those mentioned herein including principles drawn from the lex mercatoria or other types of international customary law, e.g. the principle of pacta sunt servanda, which honours contracts between states and investors, as well as the principle of precedent. Additionally, they may refer to customary norms from other jurisdictions that can harmonise with Western law.


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