Month: November 2013

By Elodie Dulac (Senior Associate, King & Spalding, Singapore)

Ethiopia is a developing country which is increasingly attracting foreign investment and is “new” to international arbitration.  It is of course not an isolated example in this respect.  I picked Ethiopia because it is a country I have been regularly travelling to for the past few years.  It is interesting to hear the perspective on international arbitration of Ethiopian lawyers and businessmen.  For those who will be involved in international transactions, most of these transactions will not be high-value ones going to the top 5 arbitration institutions and arbitration seats worldwide.  These are not the users of international arbitration most of us are usually exposed to.  How available is international arbitration to them in practice, or how available do they perceive it to be?

Continue reading International Arbitration Through the Prism of Users from a Developing Country, Ethiopia

By Dr. Stavros Brekoulakis (Professor in International Arbitration and Commercial Law, School of International Arbitration, Queen Mary University of London)

As international arbitration becomes increasingly more popular, certain aspects of private decision-making come under scrutiny, often under intense criticism. Although criticism against investment and commercial arbitration arises in different fashion and volume, critical voices coming from both the public domain and academia raise legitimate questions, such as: who are these individuals that act as arbitrators and have the power to decide issues with important implications on national public policy and sovereignty? How do arbitrators decide?

Continue reading Arbitral decision-making and ethical regulation of arbitration: Have we gone too far?