By Andrea Bjorklund, 113 Penn St. L. Rev. 1269.
In 1993 Samuel Huntington wrote about a looming clash of civilizations – what he predicted would be a cataclysmic showdown between civilizations characterized by different religions, history, languages, and traditions. Investment arbitration can also be viewed as a clash (albeit non-violent) of civilizations. It is where international commercial arbitration runs into both techniques borrowed from U.S.-style no-holds-barred litigation and the staid and measured practice common before international tribunals such as the International Court of Justice; where public international law principles vie for supremacy with municipal law and the lex mercatoria; where common law emphasis on case law meets civil law emphasis on treaty (code) provisions . . . [keep reading]