The business environment of the old economy offered certain advantages. Since clients (as well as counsel and judges) normally belonged to “the establishment”, it was difficult to escape a final award. In the new world economy things are different. The increasing speed of business transactions, the general use of electronic commerce to move title to assets around the globe at the blink of an eye and the stroke of a key, the joining of newly liberated economies and their executives to the world business community;—these are all features explaining why a successful complainant in arbitration cannot take voluntary compliance for granted.

 

Consequently, new challenges present themselves to counsel as well as to arbitrators. A fast moving world economy requires not only “rapid response” conflict solving mechanisms, but also efficient remedies against evasion. The bottom line for business executives is that the purpose of arbitration is not to obtain an award, but to have it enforced. The bottom line for counsel and arbitrators is to recognize this fact and to develop the relevant remedies. The attention of practitioners of international arbitration has thus increasingly turned to the use of interim and conservatory measures.