Jurisdictional Choices in Times of Trouble - Softcover

ICC Dossiers Volume 12

The choice of jurisdiction is one of the most important provisions of a contract. The jurisdiction clause determines the national Court, and its rules of conflict, or the arbitral tribunal, whose role will be to give effect to the partiesand#8217; agreement on the substance and on the applicable law. Written by arbitrators, academics and practitioners, this dossier addresses the multiple challenges facing the jurisdiction clause through an expert in-depth comparison of syndromes and proposed solutions in both arbitration and court proceedings.

Are asymmetrical jurisdiction clauses enforceable? What is the proper law for the arbitration clause? What occurs in countries where the validity of the arbitration agreement is determined pursuant to a substantive approach rather than one of conflict of laws? Is there a risk that The Hague Convention on choice of court agreements will create a conflict with the current substantive law and increase ex ante uncertainty?

These challenging questions and many others in relation to the effectiveness of jurisdictional choices are covered in this Dossier. An indispensable read for those dealing with international contracts or involved in international arbitration.

The ICC Institute of World Business Law brings together the finest legal minds to strengthen links between international business practitioners and the legal profession. The Instituteand#8217;s and#8216;Dossiersand#8217; is a series that has gained international prestige. These Dossiers are the outcome of the Instituteand#8217;s annual meetings, where experts from around the globe come together to discuss salient issues of international commercial law and arbitration.

An ICC Services publication, distributed by Kluwer Law International.

Georges Affaki Independent Arbitrator; Avocat à la Cour, France; Council Member, ICC Institute of World Business Law. Georges Affaki is admitted to practice before the Court of Appeal of Paris. He chairs the Legal Committee of the ICC Banking Commission and is is President-elect of ICC France Banking Commission. He also serves as Governor of the UNIDROIT Foundation. He has served as chairman, panel and sole arbitrator under the rules of the leading arbitral institutions. He has also served as tribunal or party-appointed expert on international banking and finance, economic sanctions and comparative Arab laws. Mr Affaki is Associate Professor of law at the University of Paris II and visiting lecturer at Queen Mary University of London and at University Paris Dauphine. He represents ICC at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group VI - Secured Transactions. He is the author or editor of several books, including The Guide to ICC Uniform Rules for Demand Guarantees (with Sir Roy Goode, ICC Publ. No. 702), Increasing Access to Credit - Reforming Secured Transaction Law (ITC Publishing), Cross-border insolvency and conflict of jurisdictions, Bruylant, Trade Finance (ITC Publishing) (awarded the European Prize on Interdisciplinary Research); A User's Handbook to ICC Uniform Rules for Demand Guarantees (ICC Publ. No. 631); and over 60 articles and case notes on international banking and arbitration. Mr Affaki currently chairs a working group on the revision of the Documentary Instrument Dispute Resolution by Expertise (DOCDEX) and a working group on arbitration and banking organized under the aegis of the French Arbitration Committee. He also co-chairs the Task Force on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration organized under the aegis of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR. He has chaired a Paris Europlace working group on Islamic Finance whose recommendations were presented in June 2009 in a report titled and Dispute Resolution in Islamic Finance - A French Courts' Perspective.

Horacio Grigera Naón

Independent Arbitrator, United States; Former Secretary General, ICC International Court of Arbitration; Council Member, ICC Institute of World Business Law

Horacio Grigera Naón, an Argentine national, presently an independent international arbitrator and consultant on arbitration and business and international law matters, is a former Secretary General of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce and has been a practitioner in the field of international commercial arbitration and international business law during the last 30 years.

Mr Grigera Naón has also widely published in those areas, including a book on Choice-of-Law Problems in International Commercial Arbitration (1992) and lectures at the Hague Academy of International Law (2001) on the same topic.

Mr Grigera Naón, who is a Distinguished Practitioner in Residence and the Director of the International Commercial Arbitration Center of the Washington College of Law, American University, Washington D.C., is also a member of the American Law Institute, a former Special Counsel with White & Case LLP and a former Senior Counsel with the International Finance Corporation, Washington D.C.

He holds LL.M. and S.J.D degrees from Harvard Law School, LL.B and LL.D. degrees from the School of Law of the University of Buenos Aires and is a member of the Argentine Federal, New York, District of Columbia and United States Supreme Court Bars.