Originally from International Arbitration Law and Practice, Third Edition

5.1. Analysis as to the Existence of an International Arbitration Law

The query as to whether an international arbitration law exists, or whether it is just a non legal term, is legitimate. 

According to an old opinion,1

“In the legal sense, no international arbitration exists …. Every arbitration is a national arbitration, that is to say subject to a specific system of national law.”

This view conforms with the opinion of the Paris Court of Appeal on international public policy in Banque Ottomane,2 which refers to “the principles of an alleged international public policy, the existence of which is not recognised by any system of law and in particular not by French law. …”

This approach was understandable during the post Second World War years, when many countries had to recover psychologically from the war by raising walls against the external world. But after that time international trade and transnational exchanges of cultures made people understand that the medieval notion of countries as secluded castles was out of date.