17 - Procedure before International Commercial Courts and Ordinary Courts

Summary

Despite divergencies, international commercial courts have in common the claim to be different from the ordinary courts. This chapter examines the differences in procedure between international commercial and ordinary courts by focusing on three distinctive features: namely, the cross-border character of the disputes they handle, the voluntary establishment of their jurisdiction and their arbitration features. It starts by exploring the notion of an international dispute across various international commercial courts and identifies broad internationality criteria. Then, this chapter turns to the voluntary jurisdiction of international commercial courts. It illustrates that in order to attract disputes, international commercial courts had to ease the establishment of their jurisdiction and loosen their jurisdictional requirements. Lastly, it is demonstrated how international commercial courts and their arbitration features attempt to beat the allegedly ‘unbeatable’ virtues of arbitration. In conclusion, this chapter assesses the procedural differences between international commercial and ordinary courts and their potential to enhance the attractiveness of the former over the latter.