| dc.description.abstract | There are currently no rules in international commercial arbitration law and practice
assuring the coordination between (partial or final) arbitral awards and/or national
court judgments rendered in identical or related cases. This lack of coordination is
unsatisfactory, particularly in light of the ever-growing tendency of parties to submit
their commercial disputes to international arbitration and the increasing complexity of
international arbitration. Today, international commercial transactions and the disputes
to which they give rise regularly involve multiple parties, contracts and issues. As a
consequence, these disputes (or certain aspects of these disputes) are increasingly tried
in multiple fora. In such circumstances, difficult issues regarding the res judicata effects
of prior judgments or awards are likely to arise before international commercial arbitral
tribunals.
The central hypothesis underlying this research is that transnational principles of res
judicata should be elaborated for international commercial arbitral tribunals. This
solution is justified for several reasons. First, it is justified given the differences among
domestic laws regarding res judicata and the difficulties surrounding the formulation of
appropriate conflict-of-laws rules. Second, it avoids inappropriate analogies between
international arbitration proceedings and litigation. Finally, the solution provides
guidance and ensures a certain degree of fairness, certainty and predictability, which is
expected by arbitration users.
This PhD thesis seeks to achieve its aims in two stages: Part One examines the doctrine
of res judicata in litigation, analysing the doctrine as applied in different domestic laws, as
well as in private and public international law. Part Two will determine whether and to
what extent the res judicata doctrine may be applied by international commercial arbitral
tribunals. It will demonstrate that transnational principles of res judicata should be
elaborated and will seek to formulate such principles. | en_US |
