The Restatement of the Law, The U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor-State Arbitration is an attempt to identify the role of the courts over the life cycle of an arbitral proceeding. This Restatement is designed, chapter-by-chapter, to focus on what courts are asked to do, and among the things they’re asked to do, what are they willing to do. If they’re willing to do it, how do they go about doing it.

If you look at the life cycle of an arbitration, and particularly the role of courts in the life cycle of arbitration, we really have three fundamental phases. We have the role of courts in ensuring that an arbitration takes place. We get a court involved in the question of whether the arbitration agreement is enforceable. If the arbitration is launched and a proceeding takes place, we need to consider: Do national courts get involved? What roles might they play? (Excerpted from an interview with project Reporter George A. Bermann).

Proposed Complete Table of Contents

Chapter 1. General Provisions
Topic 1. Definitions (§ 1-1)
Topic 2. Federal Preemption of State Law (§§ 1-2 to 1-6)

Chapter 2. Enforcement of the Arbitration Agreement
Topic 1. General Provisions (§§ 2-1 to 2-8)
Topic 2. Defenses to Enforcement of an Arbitration Agreement (§§ 2-9 to 2-21)
Topic 3. Conduct of Proceedings to Enforce Arbitration Agreements (§§ 2-22 to 2-30)

Chapter 3. The Judicial Role in Connection with the Arbitral Proceeding
Topic 1. Court Involvement in International Commercial Arbitration (§§ 3-1 to 3-5)
Topic 2. Multi-Party Arbitration Proceedings (§§ 3-6 to 3-8)
Topic 3. Issues Ancillary to the Arbitral Proceeding (§§ 3-9 to 3-11)

Chapter 4. Post-Award Relief
Topic 1. General Provisions (§§ 4-1 to 4-10)
Topic 2. Grounds for Post-Award Relief

Generally (§ 4-11)
Subtopic (A) Convention Awards (§§ 4-12 to 4-18)
Subtopic (B) Non-Convention Awards (§§ 4-19 to 4-22)
Subtopic (C) Party Modification and Waiver of Grounds (§§ 4-23 to 4-25)

Topic 3. Conduct of Post-Award Actions (§§ 4-26 to 4-34)
Topic 4. Correction, Modification, and Remand of Awards (§§ 4-35 to 4-36)

Chapter 5. Investor-State Arbitration
Topic 1. Law Governing the Judicial Role in Investor-State Arbitration (§ 5-1)
Topic 2: Enforcement of the Obligation to Arbitrate (§§ 5-2 to 5-3)
Topic 3: Court Involvement in Investor-State Arbitral Proceedings (§ 5-4)
Topic 4: Post-Award Relief in Investor-State Arbitration (§§ 5-5 to 5-6)

Reporters

George A. Bermann

Reporter, Restatement of the Law, The U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor-State Arbitration

George A. Bermann is an active international arbitrator in commercial and investment disputes; co-author of the UNCITRAL Guide to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards; chair of the Global Advisory Board of the New York International Arbitration Center (NYIAC); co-editor-in-chief of the American Review of International Arbitration; and founding member of the governing body of the ICC Court of Arbitration and a member of its standing committee.

Jack J. Coe, Jr.

Associate Reporter, Restatement of the Law, The U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor-State Arbitration

Jack J. Coe, Jr. is the Faculty Director of the LLM Concentration in International Commercial Arbitration at the Pepperdine School of Law. Professor Coe has chaired the Disputes Division of the ABA International Law Section, and the Academic Council of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration. Professor Coe consults with governments and multinational corporations in relation to commercial and direct investment disputes under the treaties and has both argued international arbitral claims and acted as arbitrator in ad hoc and institutional arbitrations. He is on the arbitrator panel of the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) of the American Arbitation Association. His consultancies and arbitral appointments have involved him in a wide variety of commercial topics including production sharing agreements, mining joint-ventures, patent cross-licensings and domain name management. He has authored numerous books and articles on arbitration, private international law, and related topics.

Christopher R. Drahozal

Associate Reporter, Restatement of the Law, The U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor-State Arbitration

Chris Drahozal is an internationally known scholar whose writing focuses on the law and economics of dispute resolution, particularly arbitration. Drahozal is the author of multiple books and numerous articles on commercial arbitration. He has given presentations on the subject in Europe, Asia, Canada, and the United States, and has testified before Congress and state legislatures on arbitration matters as well. He has previously served as a Special Advisor to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, assisting with its study of arbitration clauses in consumer financial services contracts

Catherine A. Rogers

Associate Reporter, Restatement of the Law, The U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor-State Arbitration

Catherine A. Rogers is a scholar of international arbitration and professional ethics at Penn State Law, with a dual appointment as Professor of Ethics, Regulation, and the Rule of Law at Queen Mary, University of London, where she is also Co-Director of the Institute for Ethics and Regulation. Her scholarship focuses on the convergence of the public and private in international adjudication, and on the reconceptualization of the attorney as a global actor. Her book, Ethics in International Arbitration, was recently published by Oxford University Press. She has been appointed by the ICC Palestine to the Court of Arbitration for the Jerusalem Arbitration Center, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Judicial Academy. Professor Rogers also co-chairs, together with William W. “Rusty” Park, of the ICCA-Queen Mary Task Force on Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration. She is regularly engaged in capacity-building activities to promote arbitration and the rule of law in developing and emerging economies. She is also the founder and director of Arbitrator Intelligence, a non-profit organization developing informational resources to increase transparency, fairness and accountability in the arbitrator selection process.

In a Divergence From Other US Federal Circuits, The US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Rules That 28 U.S.C. § 1782 May Permit US Discovery for Use in Non-US Private Arbitrations

Title 28, US Code, Section 1782 authorizes an interested person to petition a US federal district court where any person “resides or is found” for an order directing such person to provide documents or testimony for use “in a proceeding in a foreign or international...

A Historical Introduction to International Commercial and Investor-State Arbitration

The Proposed Final Draft of Restatement of the Law, The U.S. Law on International Commercial and Investor—State Arbitration will be presented to membership at ALI’s 96th Annual Meeting. The following entry is a historical introduction to international commercial and...