The Three Ages of International Commercial Arbitration

A history of modern international commercial arbitration theory and practice from the eighteenth century to the present day.

Mikaël Schinazi (Author)

9781108835176, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 December 2021

384 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.6 cm, 0.698 kg

'The book is not just a rich historical exposition - meticulously researched, cogently presented and elegantly written - but a clear-eyed assessment of deep and recurring issues fundamental to international arbitration.' Jeremy Sharpe, ICSID Review - Foreign Investment Law Journal (2023)

Drawing on a wide range of previously unpublished sources, this unique history of international commercial arbitration in the modern era identifies three periods in its development: the Age of Aspirations (c. 1780–1920), the Age of Institutionalization (1920s–1950s), and the Age of Autonomy (1950s–present). Mikaël Schinazi analyzes the key features of each period, arguing that the history of international commercial arbitration has oscillated between moments of renewal and anxiety. During periods of renewal, new approaches, instruments, and institutions were developed to carry international commercial arbitration forward. These developments were then reined in during periods of anxiety, for fear that international arbitration might be overstepping its bounds. The resulting tension between renewal and anxiety is a key thread running through the evolution of international commercial arbitration. This book fills a key gap in the scholarship for anyone interested in the fields of international arbitration, legal history, and international law.

1. General introduction
2. Introduction to the Age of Aspirations
3. Genealogy of international commercial arbitration
4. The arbitration clause saga in French law and the emergence of a special regime for international commercial arbitration
5. Introduction to the Age of Institutionalization
6. The construction of a coherent framework for international commercial arbitration
7. The development of the ICC arbitration system
8. Introduction to the Age of Autonomy
9. Lex Mercatoria and the birth of the French school of international arbitration
10. The second generation of the French school of international arbitration and the quarrel over the arbitral legal order
11. General conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: International arbitration [LBHT], International economic & trade law [LBBM], Public international law [LBB], Legal history [LAZ], International trade [KCLT]