It is commonly accepted that, until recently, arbitration in Latin America was frozen in time in the nineteenth century. However, in the 1990s, arbitration developed relatively quickly, tracking the rise of privatization, investment deregulation and globalization in the region. Since then, arbitration has taken on a variety of forms, the most prominent being commercial arbitration involving businesses, investor-state arbitrations, and trading bloc-based arbitration. This article analyzes the first two of these, and is divided into sections, each describing a key development of arbitration in Latin America. The ten key sections are analyzed in the following order: (1) relationship of arbitration to political and economic change in the region; (2) acceptance of arbitration in Latin American state contracts; (3) investment treaty arbitration; (4) growing use and promotion of arbitration by international funding agencies; (5) application of international treaties supporting arbitration; (6) domestic legal support for arbitration in Latin America; (7) development of institutional arbitration versus ad hoc arbitration; (8) industry and activity-specific arbitration; (9) multi-tier dispute resolution mechanisms; (10) the profession in Latin America.
Journal of International Arbitration