Foreword

• Author: Anthony Connerty
• Profession: Barrister and member of WIPO arbitration panel
• Pages: xiii-

This Manual addresses a topic at the confluence of several powerful trends in contemporary law, commerce and international relations. The reader will find within it reverberations of many forces. The rising globalisation of trade has demanded common dispute resolution platforms for parties engaged in international commerce. The last six decades have witnessed a renewed commitment to the peaceful resolution of international disputes among States. Private investment needs the confidence of arbitral recourse to make it willing to supply capital to developing States and state-run industries. The rule of law is on the rise in countries around the world. The explosive growth of the Internet as a new medium of commerce has created the challenge of devising mechanisms for dispute resolution among contracting parties who have never met. For years there has been a steady adoption of alternative dispute resolution on the local level. And the list goes on.

These trends intersect in so many ways that any treatment of international dispute settlement will, in a sense, be the product of an arbitrary classification of larger trends, amalgamated with concrete illustrations and practical applications. One might divide the topic into commercial dispute resolution and governmental dispute resolution. Or one could view it through a historical lens, tracing the development of modern international dispute resolution from its...