Non-Signatories and International Arbitration

Authors

William W. Park, Boston University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2014

Editor(s)

Lawrence W. Newman & Richard D. Hill

ISBN

978-1-937518-33-2

Publisher

Juris Publishing

Language

en-US

Abstract

Like consummated romance, arbitration rests on consent. An agreement of some sort waives each side’s right to invoke the jurisdiction of otherwise competent courts. Nevertheless, arbitrators do hear cases involving entities and individuals that never signed an arbitration clause. In cross-border arbitration, the genesis of decision-making power derives from no single legal system. Arbitration arises from the parties’ decision that the dispute should not be decided by national courts. Although various countries lend support to the arbitral process (recognizing agreements and awards), the litigants themselves call the arbitrators into existence in that function. When one side balks at going forward based on jurisdictional objections, various questions can face the arbitral tribunal. What is to be done in respect of “less-than-obvious” parties such as corporate affiliates or related state agencies? What role (if any) should be played by transnational norms elaborated in other arbitrations addressing similar questions? The aim of this paper lies in suggesting analytic starting points to explore these and related questions.

Comments

This was adapted and uploaded to SSRN, available online here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3018722

Recommended Citation

William W. Park, Non-Signatories and International Arbitration , in The Leading Arbitrators' Guide to International Arbitration (Lawrence W. Newman & Richard D. Hill ed., 2014).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/2256