3 - Genealogy of International Commercial Arbitration

Summary

This chapter asks whether, and to what extent, modern international arbitration practice is related to pre-twentieth-century dispute settlement methods. It argues that international arbitration can be analyzed within (1) the narrow context of (private) arbitrations practiced in local trade associations and (2) the broader context of (public) international adjudication, which has evolved considerably over time. While it does not claim that these forms of arbitration, which were important mechanisms in the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, are the sole “ancestors” of the modern international arbitration system, it shows how some of their characteristics were developed and became defining features of modern international arbitration practice. This chapter thus attempts to explore the complex genealogy (or genealogies) of international arbitration by exploring two influential lines that can be identified at a time when “arbitration” had various meanings and the field was less structured than it is today.