The UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules

Reaching past the secrecy so often met in arbitration, this study explains clearly and fully the workings of the UNCITRAL Rules of Arbitral Procedure recommended for use in 1976 by the United Nations. Pulling together difficult to obtain sources from the Iran -United States Claims Tribunal, arbitrations under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and ad hoc arbitrations the Authors illuminate the shape the bare bones UNCITRAL Rules take in practice. The authors cogently critique that practice in the light of the negotiating history of the rules and solutions adopted by the other major private rules of arbitral procedure. To aid the specialist in the field, the practice of these various tribunals is also faithfully extracted and reproduced so that it may be argued in yet unforeseen procedural contexts. Rich both in its analysis and sources, this text is indispensable for the international arbitration field.The Authors have all served with the staff of the Iran -United States Claims Tribunal and served as arbitrators, counsel and judges with institutions ranging from the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, to the European Court of Human Rights, and the United Nations.

Review :
One of the most complete and methodical studies for understanding the UNCITRAL Rules. At a time when reform of the Rules is being considered, this publication is a prelude to any contemplation of the future. Revue de Droit des Affaires Internationales The UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules are frequently used as a basis for ad hoc and institutional arbitration, notably by the Iran-US Claims Tribunal and by NAFTA Tribunals. This work is, as it states, a commentary on the Rules and an extremely valuable one. But it is much more that that, because it offers a compendium of practice under the Rules with useful extracts from decisions, reported and unreported, all presented in a systematic and accessible way. It will immediately become the standard work on its subject and an essential part of every arbitration lawyer's library. James Crawford, Whewell Professor of International Law, University of Cambridge The UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules: A Commentary by Caron, Pellonpaa and Caplan is already on my keep-to-hand shelf. Their approach is long overdue: on a Rule-by-Rule basis (in pragmatic rather than numerical order) they present commentary based on the drafting history, the pioneering jurisprudence of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, and the "blooming practice" of NAFTA Chapter 11 and other tribunals, followed immediately by verbatim excerpts from all significant decisions. This book will save international arbitration practitioners (even those of us who earned our stripes at the Iran-US Claims Tribunal) countless hours of painstaking research and piecing together of UNCITRAL Rule precedents. This books "dual function of analysis and access" undoubtedly will lead to more confident selection of the UNCITRAL Rules. Lucy Reed, Partner Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (NY), and former US Agent to the Iran-US Claims Tribunal No one involved in an international arbitration can afford to be without this Commentary. This Commentary, the work of three former legal assistants at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal (each since risen to important public duties in the field), exhaustively analyzes each Article of the Rules, providing pertinent negotiating history as well as a synopsis of every known ruling interpreting it, and conveniently includes generous excerpts from those rulings, thus sparing one the need to hunt down the original. Inevitably, this wealth of illuminated precedent has relevance for other arbitration regimes, too. Hence my advice: Don't arbitrate without it! Judge Charles N. Brower, 20 Essex Street Chambers, Judge of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal