Gary Born Delivers 2014 Lalive Lecture, 'A New Generation Of International Adjudication: Reflections On Developments In International Law' In Geneva

Gary Born, Chair of the International Arbitration Practice at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP and the world's preeminent authority on international commercial arbitration and international litigation, recently delivered the 2014 Lalive lecture.

The annual Lalive lecture series provides a forum for intellectual reflection on developments in the interface between public and private international law. The series is named in honor of the late Jean-Flavien Lalive and Professor Pierre Lalive, two prominent Geneva lawyers, who dedicated their professional and academic careers to the interaction between these two fields.

Speaking to an audience of international law professors, practitioners and students at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Mr. Born reviewed the development of international dispute settlement, focusing on the proliferation of international courts and tribunals over the last 40 years. He queried the common wisdom that the products of this proliferation—what he called second-generation tribunals—suffer from the same defects as first-generation international courts and tribunals. He compared what he labeled first- and second-generation international tribunals, arguing that, in terms of the extent to which they are used, compliance with their decisions and the ease of enforcing their awards, first-generation tribunals compare unfavorably to second-generation tribunals.

Attributing much of the apparent success of second-generation tribunals to their nuanced blend of institutional characteristics, Mr. Born suggested that second-generation tribunals partly depart from the court-like structure of "independent" tribunals and include some attractive aspects of "dependent"...