International Commercial Arbitration Offers Advantages

"International arbitration has two major advantages over litigation in national courts.

First, international arbitral awards are far more readily enforceable worldwide. More than 130 countries are signatories to the New York Convention 1958, which facilitates the recognition and enforcement of an arbitral award within each signatory country, notwithstanding that the award was rendered in a foreign jurisdiction.

Court judgments, on the other hand, are simply bare judgments which are unsupported by a multilateral enforcement treaty. By way of example, the United States is not a party to any treaty providing for the enforcement of its courts' judgments abroad.

The second major advantage of international arbitration is neutrality. Most corporations do not want to submit their disputes to a foreign court, and they certainly do not want to submit their dispute to the courts of their counterparty and thereby give away "home advantage."

International arbitration allows the parties to refer their dispute to a neutral forum which is acceptable to both parties, even if they are from entirely distinct legal and cultural backgrounds."

Read more in thisarticle from law.com that provides a practical guide to international commercial arbitration from the inception of the arbitration to the enforcement of a final award.

Found via this InhouseBlog post