Procedural Tensions in International Arbitration : Arbitration in Autum

According to some observers, arbitration has fallen into an autumn of decline and decay, shedding leaves of efficiency and coherence to reveal barren branches of rules without reason. Recent literature laments that a golden age of cheap and cheerful arbitration has yielded to backlash against a system marked by too many rules, excessive costs, and undue delay. According to some observers, arbitration has fallen into an autumn of decline and decay, shedding leaves of efficiency and coherence to reveal barren branches of rules without reason. Recent literature laments that a golden age of cheap and cheerful arbitration has yielded to backlash against a system marked by too many rules, excessive costs, and undue delay. One group of critics has published a manifesto condemning arbitration for its negative effect on human development and environmental sustainability. On closer scrutiny, however, international arbitration reveals itself as having arrived at its autumn with fruitful maturity, not decay or decline. The harvest of a more refined arbitral process derives from productive exchanges among arbitrators, judges, scholars, legislators, counsel and professional associations, all of whom find their place among arbitration’s stakeholders