Recent Developments in Inter-American Commercial Arbitration

Arbitration has become an effective procedure for resolving international commercial disputes in the Western Hemisphere. A framework of treaties exists, establishing substantive law and procedure for that purpose. The United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (1958) has been ratified by sixteen Western Hemisphere countries. The Inter-American Convention on International Commercial Arbitration (1975) has been ratified by thirteen countries.

Furthermore, the World Bank's Convention establishing the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes has been ratified by four Latin American countries and six anglophobe Western Hemisphere countries and it has been signed but not yet ratified by three countries in the Hemisphere… [N]ew developments in treaty and domestic law, together with an educational program of seminars… will lead to a greatly increased use of arbitration and other alternate dispute resolution procedures within the Western Hemisphere.