Contract Law in International Commercial Arbitration

International Arbitration Law Library #66

About this book:

Contract Law in International Commercial Arbitration is a pioneering book breaking new ground by focusing in detail on the contract law chosen by the parties to be applied to disputes. The vast bulk of claims in international commercial arbitration is contractual. From that perspective, the choice of applicable contract law comes to occupy centre stage in the arbitration of disputes.

What’s in this book:

This book sets out an analysis of why English, New York, and Swiss contract law is outperforming natural or potential competitors and also examines, among others, the following:

• comparative examination of traditional and contemporary theories of contract law;
• identification of contract law principles that are most appropriate to international commercial arbitration;
• justification of a contract law theory tailor-made for international commercial arbitration;
• application of the theory to contract issues most frequently dealt with in arbitration; and
• focus on claims for damages.

How this will help you:

This book elucidates pragmatic adjudication based on facts and consequences rather than conceptualisms and generalities. The ability of arbitrators to make decisions based on legal arguments that fit the setting of international commercial arbitration is thereby enhanced. It is sure to become established as a tool to achieve the defined objective of facilitating cross-border commercial transactions and providing arbitrators with a set of rules for interpreting contractual provisions, identifying the few public policy rules of contract law selected by the parties, and quantifying damages for breach of contract.

‘Peter Sester confronts the reality that disputes in commercial arbitration are overwhelmingly contract-based, and properly directs our attention away from the contract by which the parties agreed to arbitrate to the contract by reference to which they intended their disputes to be adjudicated. This is a most welcome move and one that cannot help stimulate those whose interests are similarly situated on the frontier between the law of arbitration and the law of international contracts.’

Prof. George A. Bermann

Columbia University, New York City

‘This is a book that is not only useful but also close to market expectations. … Summing up, I would like to congratulate Peter Sester for giving us a free-market society book. He provides his readers with much food for thought and a remarkable admonition not to replace the parties’ work with public policy considerations.’

Prof. Dr Peter Nobel

Emeritus Universities St. Gallen and Zurich, Switzerland