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Very Short Introductions #667
Arbitration: A Very Short Introduction
Very Short Introductions : Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring
Arbitration is a legal dispute resolution mechanism, alternative to courts. It provides binding decisions, enforceable around the world. It is where parties take their disputes when they have agreed that courts, for one reason or another, do not suit them - which happens more often than one might think. Some of the most politically sensitive disputes on the largest scale go to arbitration. Countries which need to settle their boundaries in areas of the oceans rich in oil, gas and other resources sometimes arbitrate, and much of the war in Sudan was eventually tied up with an arbitration. Investors who have staked billions of dollars in unstable developing countries rely on arbitration clauses to protect their investments. But also much smaller, everyday cases are routinely dealt with by arbitration - millions of consumers, whether they know it or not, enter into arbitration contracts when they conclude routine transactions. Even athletes get involved in arbitration cases of great
notoriety, for instance when these relate to doping offences during the Olympic Games.
This Very Short Introduction explains what arbitration is, how it works, what parties who have agreed to go to arbitration should expect, the relationship between arbitration and the law, and the politics of arbitration. It also considers where the global system of arbitration is headed.
ABOUT THE The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Arbitration is a legal dispute resolution mechanism, alternative to courts. It provides binding decisions, enforceable around the world. It is where parties take their disputes when they have agreed that courts, for one reason or another, do not suit them - which happens more often than one might think. Some of the most politically sensitive disputes on the largest scale go to arbitration. Countries which need to settle their boundaries in areas of the oceans rich in oil, gas and other resources sometimes arbitrate, and much of the war in Sudan was eventually tied up with an arbitration. Investors who have staked billions of dollars in unstable developing countries rely on arbitration clauses to protect their investments. But also much smaller, everyday cases are routinely dealt with by arbitration - millions of consumers, whether they know it or not, enter into arbitration contracts when they conclude routine transactions. Even athletes get involved in arbitration cases of great
notoriety, for instance when these relate to doping offences during the Olympic Games.
This Very Short Introduction explains what arbitration is, how it works, what parties who have agreed to go to arbitration should expect, the relationship between arbitration and the law, and the politics of arbitration. It also considers where the global system of arbitration is headed.
ABOUT THE The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
144 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2021
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51 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 30, 2023
Read not so much to learn something new myself but to understand what one could learn from this book, if one were new to the topic.
Schultz and Grant do a fantastic job, as is typical for the series. Their description of what arbitration is and how it came to be is, as far as I can say, accurate, concise and comprehensible. They also manage to mount considerable challenges to the celebratory picture of arbitration that practitioners often paint. Their arguments are the ones lawyers need (prepared?) responses for, if they are to debate arbitration in a public forum. Certainly, as is the nature of both practice and practitioners, such responses can be found.
Apart from necessary lacunae regarding legal technicalities, it is in the discussion of the political that the small books has its shortcomings. The picture of a good state acting with great care for its citizens and duly protecting their culture and environment is obviously simplistic. That there is a clear boundary between the private and the public and the state is to define it appears doubtful. Nevertheless, Schultz and Grant remind even the most ardent pro-business lawyers that they are under a certain duty to justify both the contractual freedom they make use of in the name of their clients and the contractual obligations they create towards a larger public. Investment and growth, if they are to succeed and convince, must not just manifest themselves as nebulous trickle-down effects, but as an energetic and optimistic form of life. Only then can citizen and company both be drawn to the freedom of the market and be - yes - incentivised to see it as a way towards a better, more self-governed and desired future.
Schultz and Grant do a fantastic job, as is typical for the series. Their description of what arbitration is and how it came to be is, as far as I can say, accurate, concise and comprehensible. They also manage to mount considerable challenges to the celebratory picture of arbitration that practitioners often paint. Their arguments are the ones lawyers need (prepared?) responses for, if they are to debate arbitration in a public forum. Certainly, as is the nature of both practice and practitioners, such responses can be found.
Apart from necessary lacunae regarding legal technicalities, it is in the discussion of the political that the small books has its shortcomings. The picture of a good state acting with great care for its citizens and duly protecting their culture and environment is obviously simplistic. That there is a clear boundary between the private and the public and the state is to define it appears doubtful. Nevertheless, Schultz and Grant remind even the most ardent pro-business lawyers that they are under a certain duty to justify both the contractual freedom they make use of in the name of their clients and the contractual obligations they create towards a larger public. Investment and growth, if they are to succeed and convince, must not just manifest themselves as nebulous trickle-down effects, but as an energetic and optimistic form of life. Only then can citizen and company both be drawn to the freedom of the market and be - yes - incentivised to see it as a way towards a better, more self-governed and desired future.
October 24, 2022
school book, filled its purpose.
has all the general information in a understable format.
has all the general information in a understable format.
December 21, 2023
I had the takeaway that arbitration probably needs to be standardized/regulated more than it is.
July 13, 2024
The two legal experts, Thomas Schultz and Thomas D. Grant published Arbitration: A Very Short Introduction in 2021. Schultz and Grant define Arbitration as “the procedure in which certain parties choose a decision-marker the exclusive power and grant the decision-maker the exclusive power to render a decision maker the exclusive power to render a decision on a dispute between them-usually referred to as an award-following a procedure that complies with some standard of fairness also agreed by the parties” (Schultz & Grant 14). The book gives an overview of different kinds of arbitration. The book seems to focus on arbitration between countries and various countries or corporations (Schultz & Grant 39-54). I did not know the story of the Confederate naval ship, CSS Alabama, which led to successful arbitration between the United States and Great Britain (Schultz & Grant 2-4). I enjoyed reading the section entitled “The Rise of Modern Arbitration” (Schultz & Grant 2-14). The section also looks at the failed arbitration between Iran and Great Britain over the Anglo-Iranian Company of the early 1950s (Schultz & Grant 7-12). I read the book on my Kindle. I learn a lot from the book. The book has illustrations, a section of references, and an index. The book has a section entitled “further reading” (Schultz & Grant 111-112). Schultz and Grant’s short book, which is an introduction to arbitration, is well done.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews