The American Influence on International Commercial Arbitration (2^nd Ed.) Doctrinal Developments and Discovery Methods

As in its first edition, this book traces the contours of select US common law doctrinal developments concerning international commercial arbitration. This new edition supplements the foundational work contained in the first edition in order to produce a broader and deeper work. The author explores how the US common law may help bridge cross-cultural legal differences by focusing on the need to address these contrasting approaches through the nomenclature and goal of securing equality between party-autonomy and arbitrator discretion in international commercial arbitration. This book thus focuses on the common law development of arbitrator immunity, as well as the precepts of party-initiative and ?autonomy forming part of the US common law discovery rubric that may contribute to promoting expediency, efficiency and transparency in international commercial arbitration proceedings. It does so by carefully analyzing, among other things, the International Bar Association (IBA) Rules on Evidence Gathering, the Prague Rules, and the role of 28 USC. §1782 in international arbitration.

Introduction; 1. The formation and transformation of the status of international and domestic arbitration in the United States; 2. Wilko v. Swan, Scherk v. Alberto-Culver, and Mitsubishi v. Soler: Crafting a level playing field; 3. Arbitrator immunity; 4. Procedural change and 28 USC § 1782: the taking of evidence v. common law discovery; 5. The new unorthodox conception of common law transparency in international arbitration through evidence gathering and orality; 6. 28 USC § 1782 and manifest disregard of the law: is avoiding one walking into the other?; 7. Perjury and arbitration: the honor system where the arbitrators have the honor and the parties have the system; 8. Developments in the apportionment of jurisdiction between arbitrators and courts concerning the validity of a contract containing an arbitration clause, and transformations regarding the severability doctrine; 9. US arbitration law and its dialogue with the New York Convention: the development of four issues; Conclusion; Appendices; Index.

Pedro J. Martinez-Fraga is a Partner in Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, LLP's International Arbitration and Litigation Practice Group, where he is the firm's co-leader of the International Arbitration Practice Group globally. On 16 December, 2015, President Barack Obama appointed Martinez-Fraga to the Panel of Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (World Bank). Martínez-Fraga has represented eight countries as lead counsel, and has served as an arbitrator in ICSID (World Bank) proceedings. He has published more than sixty articles or chapters in fifteen countries, which have been published in five languages, and has written six books on public or private international law.