Arbitration Discourse

Abstract

Arbitration is an independent, extrajudicial, alternative dispute resolution mechanism. The globalization of international trade has made arbitration the preferred device to solve disputes in cross‐border settings. One of the major challenges in the study of international arbitration discourse is precisely its multidisciplinary and intercultural dimension, as it has to integrate processes and procedures across legal systems (civil law and common law) and bring together a diverse range of participants, such as legal drafters of regulations, the parties in disputes, their legal counsels and witnesses, and the arbitrators, all coming from different linguistic, cultural, professional, and jurisdictional backgrounds. In other words, the international arbitration process is a sequence of complex discursive and professional practices carried out in multicultural and multilegal contexts.