Commercial Arbitration: Advantages, Limitations, And Recent Developments In Nigeria

Commercial arbitration is a type of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism that is used by parties to settle disagreements in business relationships as opposed to going to the courts. For a dispute to be settled by arbitration, the parties typically agree through an arbitration agreement that they are willing to take certain disagreements that arise from their legal relationship to arbitration; this can be done by adding a clause in the agreement or a separate agreement¹. One or more arbitrators² are appointed by the parties to the dispute to analyze the circumstances with the aim of resolving the dispute. Arbitration has attained a high level of influence as an effective mechanism for resolving commercial disputes as it allows the parties to avoid the time and expense involved in the traditional mode of dispute resolution, which is litigation.