Originally from Pro-Arbitration Revisited: A Tribute to Professor George Bermann from his Students Over the Years

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I love Professor Bermann’s “What Does it Mean to Be ‘Pro-Arbitration’?” article. But I ask myself: is it pro-arbitration?

He tells our international arbitration community—heavily engaged as we are both “by” and “in” international arbitration—that we have to make “trade-offs” among our core values of legitimacy and efficiency in international arbitration. How dare he. He tells us that we have to “compromise” our pro-arbitration zeal to take into account policies “extrinsic” to international arbitration—stuff like antitrust and securities policies that he claims also have “social value and utility.”

How dare he. 

He dares because, of course, he’s right. Our international arbitration community does need to think more deeply about, and view through a wider lens, why and how we are pro-arbitration.