10 - The Second Generation of the French School of International Arbitration and the Quarrel over the Arbitral Legal Order

Summary

This chapter explores the dynamics of renewal and anxiety in the context of the French school of international arbitration. It shows how, in the 1980s and 1990s, a new generation took the helm within the French school. Members of this second generation – who had been the students of leading members of the first generation and envisioned international commercial arbitration as a field of both research and practice – felt that the debates over lex mercatoria had led to important insights but did not sufficiently address fundamental questions, such as the source of the arbitrators’ power to adjudicate or the “juridicity” of international arbitration. At the same time, arbitration scholars – not just in France, but also in places such as England, Switzerland, and the United States – argued vigorously for and against the enforcement of awards set aside in the country of the seat. As explained in this chapter, the major contribution of the second generation of the French school was a theorization of the arbitral legal order, which led to a deeper sense of renewal for some and anxiety for others.