One would sometimes be amazed how a voluminous treatise of more than 4,000 pages could be produced by a law firm partner who has been buried in his daily advocacy and other professional work. This award-winning book, by the world’s leading authority on international commercial arbitration, Gary Born, furnishes international legal practitioners, academics, and corporations doing transnational business with the most comprehensive analysis and commentary on all aspects of the field.

Updated from a previous edition, the book is now composed of three volumes covering respectively international arbitration agreements, international arbitral procedures, and international arbitral awards. This three-part division helpfully streamlines and groups the various topics associated with international commercial arbitration with an emphasis on the three crucial areas into which all arbitration-related issues, such as applicable law, emergency arbitrators, constitution of arbitral tribunals, interim measures, procedural orders, legal representation, evidentiary hearing, the making of the award, judicial assistance and supervision, and so on, could conveniently be built.

The topics of international commercial arbitration covered, and the sources of publications and other legal material provided, by the book are so comprehensive that it could be justifiably called a quasi-encyclopaedia of the theory and practice of international commercial arbitration. Included in the overall picture of the commentary and analysis of the book are not only international conventions and other international instruments, but also national legislations and judicial practices, friendly or less friendly to arbitration; similar and different arbitration practices in common-law and civil-law nations. As arbitration is arguably the most popular form of dispute resolution in international trade and other transactions, the book will serve as an important tool for law firms engaging in international legal services, international arbitrators, and in-house counsel, and a valuable reference book for academics interested in the field. However, the book may not be suitable for law students because of its size, but there is a concise version available for students.

The first volume of the book, with a text of 1,500 pages, is devoted entirely to international arbitration agreements, assuring the readers that probably each and every issue related to international arbitration agreement has been adequately introduced and commented upon. It is the most detailed and comprehensive analysis of the subject I have ever read. Ten chapters are included in Volume I covering, in respect of international arbitration agreements: its legal framework; the separability presumption; choice of law; its formation, validity, and legality; the competence-competence principle; its effects and enforcement; interpretation; and parties to the agreement. Of particular interest is the author’s exploration of the non-arbitrability doctrine that applies to various types of claims, including not only those often discussed, such as claims relating to antitrust and competition, bankruptcy and insolvency, and intellectual property, but also those less frequently addressed, such as claims arising from securities transactions, corruption and bribery, trade sanctions and embargoes, consumer complaints, natural resource management, and corporate governance.

The second volume, on international arbitration procedures, covers most of the important and practical procedural issues in international commercial arbitration. The argument that arbitration is not a science but an art is evidently demonstrated by the discussion of the issues in this volume. Containing eleven chapters, this volume provides the rules, jurisprudence, and practical guidance on how to select and challenge an arbitrator; what are the rights and duties of international arbitrators; how to select the arbitral seat; the arbitral procedures that should be applicable; disclosure and production of documents; provisional relief; consolidation, joinder, and intervention; choice of substantive law; confidentiality; and legal representation and standards of professional conduct.

The third volume addresses the final product of international arbitration, the arbitral awards. This six-chapter volume provides a detailed discussion of the form and contents of awards; the correction, interpretation, and supplementation of awards; the annulment and confirmation of awards; and the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards. The last chapter of the book examines the issue of preclusion, lis pendens and stare decisis in international commercial arbitration, which are very interesting issues and full of divergent opinions and practices.

One of the features of this book is the solid foundation built on extensive citation of international instruments, national statutes, and judicial decisions, as well as rules, codes, and guidelines in support of each proposition and argument made by the author. The court judgments from various jurisdictions alone cited in the book probably exceed 5,000. The intelligent analysis and discussion of the issues of international commercial arbitration based upon the provisions of the New York Convention, one of the two pillars of modern international commercial arbitration, makes the author’s arguments particularly persuasive. For instance, in order to solve the conflict between the parties’ agreement for selecting the arbitral tribunal and the law of the arbitral seat, the author relied on Articles II(3) and V(1)(d) of the Convention, and reached the conclusion that the Convention generally requires Contracting States to recognize the parties’ procedural autonomy and agreed arbitral procedures. The author’s extensive analysis of the practical arbitration issues on the basis of Articles II and V of the New York Convention, and the assertion of the presumptive validity of arbitration agreements and arbitral awards under the above Articles, should be viewed as valuable contributions of this book.

The book as an authority on international commercial arbitration does not discuss investor-state arbitration, which is distinct from commercial arbitration. Nor does the book pay particular attention to the arbitration developments of the Asian developing countries, though some introduction to the Asian arbitral institutions in China, Malaysia, and India has been included, and the statutes and court judgments of some Asian countries have been briefly cited and discussed. Apart from those global legal instruments such as the New York Convention, the domestic arbitration legislation and court judgments cited in the book are primarily from Western European and American developed nations, with the exception of Singapore and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, where international commercial arbitration is highly developed and the two jurisdictions may not be typical of the Asian perspective. This is understandable given that the book is written from a global perspective and advocates the best practice of international commercial arbitration in modern society. The book is a helpful authority for Asian nations which are relatively underdeveloped in the field of international commercial arbitration and which are trying to catch up with other countries.