Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

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I.    THE USE OF ARBITRATION IN KOREA

In the last 50 years, the Republic of Korea  has emerged as the fourth largest economy in Asia after China, Japan and India, and with a nominal gross domestic product of around 1.3 trillion USD, as the eleventh largest economy in the world.  In terms of exports, it is the fifth largest overall exporter in the world, after China, the United States, Japan and Germany.  These statistics are especially remarkable considering that Korea has a smaller population base compared to other countries in the top five. The data also demonstrates the dependence of the Korean economy on cross-border business transactions.  It is no surprise that the number of cross-border transactions with Korean parties is increasing.

Disputes are a fact of life and business transactions in any setting are no exception. Cross-border commercial transactions and interactions underpinning international trade and commerce are particularly susceptible to disputes due to their additional complexities involving differences in languages, cultures, laws and currencies, distances and borders.  It is therefore maybe inevitable that the rise in cross-border transactions and the rapid growth of the Korean economy corresponds to a steady growth in the numbers of international arbitrations involving Korean parties. 

Although international arbitration, in its modern form, administered by dedicated arbitration institutions, has emerged in particular in Europe and the United States, Asian based arbitration institutions, such as the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) or the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), are becoming more and more prominent.  Asian parties have embraced the practice of international arbitration, demonstrated by a steady growth in the number of cases in the region, including cases involving Korean parties.