Complex International Financial Disputes: Is Arbitration the Answer?

There have always been cross border disputes involving complex financial market issues. These disputes run the gamut of financial/commercial transactions. They include the rights and obligations under various financial instruments, disputes among the buyers and sellers of businesses such as post-closing adjustments, valuation issues and earn out provisions, the relationships between investors in structured investment vehicles, disputes involving senior executives and their employers and general creditor rights. When the parties to the dispute come from different countries, there are many advantages to resolving the disputes through arbitration rather than litigating in a national court. Typically, those who favor international arbitration cite at least 11 ways in which arbitration is better than court litigation: time to resolution, jurisdiction, service of process, costs, discovery, expertise of the decision maker, home courting/cultural bias/juries, confidentiality, enforcement, finality, and maintaining relationships. Arbitrations are generally less contentious than court cases. Keywords: commercial transactions; cross border disputes; financial market issues; international arbitration; national court