England is a leading centre for arbitration, both international and domestic, arising out of all manner of contractual disputes and industry sectors. This book comprises contributions from well-known arbitration practitioners and scholars who present, in a straightforward and readable fashion, the rich and varied nature of arbitration in England today. The early chapters describe the development of the arbitral system in England and its traditional leading institutions, the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb). They also provide a unique focus on the specialist areas of commodity, maritime, construction and sports arbitration. The remainder of the book deals with the law and practice of arbitration in England and concludes with two additional overview chapters relating to arbitration in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland respectively. Insightful and practical guidance is given in relation to a number of key areas, including: appointing and challenging arbitrators; applicable law and the influence of EU law; the role of the court, including anti-suit and anti-arbitration injunctions and interim relief; arbitration procedure and practice in ad hoc and institutional arbitrations; factual and expert evidence, including privilege and electronic document production; challenges to, and appeals from, awards; recognition and enforcement of awards; and multilateral and bilateral investment treaty arbitration. Anyone whose pursuits or responsibilities require knowledge of arbitration in England - including practitioners, in-house counsel, business persons, academics, and students around the world - will benefit enormously from this thorough study and analysis of contemporary arbitration practice in the jurisdiction.

The distinguished international lawyer Michael Pryles, who launched a meteoric career as an arbitrator after many years of teaching and writing on conflicts of law and other topics, has made a mark on arbitral law and practice that is recognized worldwide. In this book, over forty prominent arbitrators and arbitration scholars offer insightful essays on the thorny matters of jurisdiction, admissibility and choice of law in arbitration – topics which have long interested Professor Pryles and are of wide interest. Among the specific issues and topics examined are the following: • res judicata; • investment arbitration; • free trade agreements; • party autonomy; • application of provisional measures; • issue estoppel; • evidentiary inferences; • interim measures; • emergency and default proceedings; • the intersection of financing and jurisdiction; • consolidation of cases; and • non-contractual claims. Remarkable for its roster of highly distinguished contributors, this book is the only in-depth treatment of its subject. By turns thought-provoking and practical, it is bound to appeal to and be put to use by arbitrators and other lawyers who handle international cases. It will also prove of great value to global law firms and companies doing transnational business.

Central to the book’s purpose is the procedural challenge facing arbitrators at each and every stage of the arbitral process when fairness arguments conflict with efficiency concerns and trade-offs must be determined. Some key themes include how can a tribunal be fair, and in particular be neutral, if parties are so diverse? How can arbitration be made efficient and cost-effective without undue inroads into fairness and accuracy? How does a tribunal do what is best if the parties are choosing a suboptimal process? When can or must an arbitrator ignore procedural choices made by the parties? The author thoroughly evaluates competing arguments and adds his own practical tips, expertly synthesizing and engaging with the conference literature and differing authors’ views. He identifies criteria that offer a harmonized approach to each stage of the arbitral process, with particular attention to such aspects of international arbitration as: appropriate trade-offs between flexibility and certainty; the rights, duties and powers of arbitrators; appointment and challenge of arbitrators; responses to ‘guerilla’ tactics; drafting of arbitration agreements, including specialty clauses; drafting of required commencement notices and response documents; set-off; fast track arbitration and other efficiency options; strategic use of preliminary conferences and timetabling; online arbitration; multi-party, multi-contract, class arbitration; amicus and third party funders; pre-arbitral referees and interim relief; witness evidence, both factual and expert; documentary evidence, production obligations, and challenges to production; identifying applicable law; and remedies and costs.

This book depicts and evaluates, in a European context, the pleas and actions which parties may make use of to dissolve the parallel jurisdiction of a national court and an arbitral tribunal. The author undertakes a thorough comparative analysis of the motivations for, and practice of, such pleas and actions with special regard to the major hubs where elaborate arbitration laws are tried and tested by the arbitration community - Germany, France, Switzerland, and England. 0On the basis of four scenarios of parallel proceedings before national courts and arbitral tribunals, the analysis tackles such issues and topics as the following: motivations for initiating parallel proceedings from the various parties' perspectives; remedies available to parties in situations of jurisdictional conflicts; effect of the principle of competence-competence on national courts' review of arbitration agreements; pleas restricting national courts' exercise of jurisdiction to a review of core principles (arbitration defence); self-restraining pleas independent of an arbitration agreement (plea of litispendence); actions for declaratory relief; actions aimed at restraining another court's or tribunal's jurisdiction (anti-suit/anti-arbitration injunctions); pleas invoked to avoid procedural inefficiencies and inconsistencies (plea of res judicata); counsel's duty of care and arbitral tribunal's mandate to issue an enforceable award; and litigation culture versus arbitration-friendliness.

Examines many seminal experiments in international adjudication and the origins of several major existing international courts.