S. Advanced International Commercial Arbitration

This seminar will provide advanced studies of selected topics of both theoretical and practical interest in international commercial arbitration. Classes will meet once a week for two hours. Specific topics and reading materials will be posted on the courseweb. After three classes, students will choose from among a list of Optional Topics, or may formulate a topic of their own choice in consultation with the teacher, and take the lead in presenting those topics for discussion during class. Each student will be required to submit a paper on the topic he or she has selected. This seminar is intended for students who have completed an overview course on international commercial arbitration, or who are otherwise generally familiar with the field.

The specific topics covered in the seminar include:
-- What Is "Arbitration"?
-- Arbitral Jurisdiction: Kompetenz-Kompetenz and its limits
-- Arbitral Due Process: iura novit curia in arbitration
-- Class Action Arbitration
-- Ex Parte Interviews of Party-Appointed Arbitrators
-- Multi-Tiered Dispute Resolution
-- Choice of Substantive Law
-- Choice of Arbitration Law
-- Burden and Standard of Proof
-- Court-Ordered Discovery in Aid of International Arbitration
-- Res Judicata in Arbitration
-- Cross-Examination
-- Contractual Expansion/Contraction of Judicial Review of Awards
-- Effect of Foreign Judgments Vacating/Confirming Foreign Awards

At the end of the seminar, students will have acquired understanding of:

1. The policy considerations underlying current prevailing international arbitration laws, rules and practices;
2. The practical application and consequences of those arbitration laws, rules and practices; and
3. Different perspectives--of courts, arbitrators, arbitral institutions, counsel and parties--of those policies and practices in international arbitration.

NOTE: Students need not have taken the course on international commercial arbitration at Columbia, but they are expected to have a basic understanding of international arbitration law-either from a course taken in their home country or actual practical experience in arbitration-in order to participate constructively in the advanced seminar in which students take the lead in presenting and analyzing specific topics of their choice in international arbitration.