The three ages of international commercial arbitration : between renewal and anxiety.

Summary This thesis deals with the history of international commercial arbitration, a method of dispute resolution by which the parties remove the examination of their dispute from the state courts and entrust the solution to one or more private persons. This history can be divided into three main periods. During the "Age of Aspiration" (from about 1800 to 1920), arbitration was used in many contexts, both domestically (corporate arbitration) and internationally (interstate arbitration), which gave certain characteristic features to the modern practice of international commercial arbitration. During the "age of institutionalization" (from about 1920 to 1950), key institutions such as the International Chamber of Commerce and its Court of Arbitration were created, and coherent and effective institutional arbitration systems were established. Finally, the "age of autonomy" (since the 1950s) was marked by increased specialization and by attempts to self-institute a separate body of law and to justify the theoretical underpinnings of the arbitration system as a whole. This research demonstrates that the history of international commercial arbitration oscillates between phases of "renewal" and phases of "anxiety". During periods of renewal, new instruments, devices and institutions were designed to expand the reach of international commercial arbitration. Such measures were counterbalanced during periods of anxiety or questioning, when attempts were made to limit the scope of arbitration (e.g. in order not to encroach on state sovereignty). This tension or pendulum swing between renewal and anxiety is a characteristic feature of the history of international commercial arbitration and helps to explain the structural forces underlying its evolution.