Last Wednesday was the first day of the inaugural New York Arbitration Week. The day’s headliner was a half-day program on the new American Law Institute’s Restatement of the U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor-State Arbitration, the final draft of which was approved earlier this year. The program was led by the Restatement Reporter Columbia Law School Prof. George A. Bermann, and featured an introduction by White & Case partner Carolyn B. Lamm, remarks on the importance of the Restatement by Ninth Circuit Judge Margaret McKeown, and two panel discussions on some of the thornier topics addressed in the Restatement. The panelists included the Restatement’s Associate Reporters and key Advisers. The program was held at Sidley Austin and was sponsored and organized by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) NY Branch.

The Restatement, a product of a 12-year effort, is the first-ever ALI Restatement on international commercial arbitration. Its completion marks an important step in the development of U.S. law on the topic. Although international commercial arbitration within the U.S. is a matter of federal law and governed by statute, primarily the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. §§1-16; §§201-208; §§301-307, the law in this field is largely judge-made. Accordingly, the Restatement sets out to present U.S. law on the subject in a systematic and coherent fashion. It covers a comprehensive spectrum of issues that confront U.S. courts in arbitration matters, including the enforcement of the arbitration agreement, the limited role of courts to intervene in arbitral proceedings and the enforcement of arbitration awards. The final chapter, not discussed Wednesday, addresses differences between investor-state arbitration and international commercial arbitration generally, an area of increasing salience. Judge McKeown opined that, given the “many unanswered questions” in the field of international arbitration, the Restatement promises to be a valuable resource for both judges and counsel in the years to come.

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