Sports Arbitration: A Coach for Other Players? is not about sports arbitration. The reader may thus ask: Well, what is it about? Arbitration can take inspiration from other human activities, for instance sports. Does it follow that arbitration in general can take inspiration from sports arbitration? Can sports arbitration serve as an example, be it for better or worse? And if so, what are the limits of this?

 

These questions are highly topical in today's world of arbitration. Faced with the increased duration and costs of arbitral proceedings, and with the perception that litigators instead of business people have taken over the process, more and more users are calling for a return to fast, inexpensive forms of dispute resolution that are conducted by persons of the trade. This has resulted in a series of initiatives to introduce trade-specific forms of dispute resolution based on fast-track arbitration proceedings in a wide range of business sectors.