Advantages and disadvantages of the contemporary international commercial arbitration: Central characteristics and prospects for development

The very character of business relations and especially that of international commercial and trade relations entails a host of advantages of arbitration as a form of dispute resolution in this area over the traditional court procedures. Today, in the context of intensive internationalization of national economies and a globalized scope of operations of single private economic actors, arbitration has quickly gained in importance and taken over a dominant role in resolving disputes arising in international business relations. At the same time, the role of traditional national courts has been winning. It is therefore necessary to understand the exact form and extent of international commercial arbitration, its advantages and disadvantages as well as its position vis a vis the national and international law. The goal of this paper is to offer a comprehensive overview of legal aspects of international commercial arbitration: its development, legal nature, theoretical foundations and the place it occupies in the international law. The discussion focuses on the advantages as well as disadvantages of international commercial arbitration and emphasizes the task of promoting and improving this institution in order to support growing needs for effective dispute resolution in the area of international commercial relations. In that sense, it is especially important to broaden and further the body of work dealing with the notion and definition of arbitration institutions, as well as that of arbitration law in general, and especially the relevant procedural law.