Universal Arbitration: An Aspiration Within Reach or a Sisyphean Goal?

Justice Stream B4

The concept of “universal arbitration” reflects the nature of international arbitration in the modern world. As summarized in Jan Paulsson’s Alexander Lecture, the concept is “something that we might think of as sociological, namely the convergence of the way disputes are resolved, so that disputants and advocates and arbitrators of any nationality can be found everywhere, doing the same thing in the same way – with an ever-decreasing number of linguistic barriers. ” The focus of this panel will be on the challenges inherent in universal arbitration and, in specific, to dissect the very features or premises/principles of arbitration – and legal advocacy – that must be shared and perhaps even codified in institutional rules, to make universal arbitration work effectively.