International arbitration has developed significantly during the last 80 years. The number of cross-border commercial contracts and international treaties containing arbitration clauses has exploded in the recent decades, leading to exponential growth in the number of international arbitrations. The increased globalization of world trade and investment has resulted in increasingly harmonized arbitration practices around the world. Many important instruments that support this harmonization and international arbitration in general have been created during the lifetime of the Board of Business Practice. These instruments include the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the "New York Convention") and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law ("UNCITRAL") Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (the "UNCITRAL Model Law"), to give but a couple of examples. To date, the New York Convention has been ratified by 157 states, and legislation based on the UNCITRAL Model Law has been adopted in a total of 106 jurisdictions in 75 states.
The growing popularity of arbitration is visible in Finland as well. Arbitration has long been the preferred method of resolving commercial disputes in Finland. Established in 1911, the Arbitration Institute of the Finland Chamber of Commerce (the "FAI") is one of the world's oldest arbitral institutions. Finland also has an active arbitration community with an especially dynamic community of young practitioners.
In light of arbitration's ever expanding role as a means of resolving international disputes, this article discusses certain recent trends in international arbitration. The aim is not to cover all hot topics in arbitration but rather to focus on four that have caught the authors' attention in particular:
Transparency
- Transparency vs. Confidentiality
- Instruments Aimed at Increasing Transparency in Investor-State Arbitration
- Transparency in International Commercial Arbitration
Third-Party Funding
- Development of Third-Party Funding of Arbitration
- Issues of Concern
- Regulation of Third-Party Funding
- Disclosure of Third-Party Funding
Financial Institution Arbitration
- Financial Institutions' Traditional Preference for Litigation
- ICC Commission Report on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration
- Financial Disputes' Increasing Role in Arbitration
Diversity in International Arbitration
- Changing the Paradigm of "Pale, Male, and Stale"
- Equal Representation in Arbitration Pledge
- Other Instruments Aimed at Increasing Diversity in International Arbitration
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The views expressed in this article are strictly those of the authors and should not be attributed in any way to White & Case LLP.
This article was originally published in the 80 year anniversary book of the Board of Business Practice of the Finnish Chamber of Commerce, October 2017.
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