This article describes why a small country like Finland, which has excellent natural attributes as a place for arbitration (political neutrality and stability, respect for the rule of law, freedom from corruption and a central location between East and West), but which is little resorted to for this purpose, being overshadowed by its neighbour, Sweden, should adopt the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (‘UNCITRAL’) Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (the ‘Model Law’). The indispensable condition for any country to develop as a place for arbitration is for it to have a modern and internationally acceptable arbitration law. However, Finland’s arbitration law is relatively old (dating from 1992) and based on an antiquated Swedish model. What is more serious is that Finland’s legal infrastructure for arbitration, that is, its arbitration law and court system, is not perceived by international arbitration users and arbitral institutions as being internationally acceptable. By contrast, the Model Law is recognized today as the ‘baseline for any state wishing to modernize its law of arbitration’ Accordingly, if Finland wants to become an attractive place for international arbitration, as it should do, the obvious solution is for it to adopt the Model Law. This will make Finland instantly recognizable around the world as having a modern and internationally acceptable arbitration law.
Journal of International Arbitration