Introduction
Application of soft law in international arbitration has
increasingly become more significant. Mainly due to the party
autonomy that is dominant in arbitration states tends to regulate
arbitration laws in a limited way. This created a new market for
players, besides lawmakers to codify rules. These rules that are
drafted by such private players have a substantive, or are of a
procedural, nature. One of the most referred to substantive soft
law is the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial
Contracts ("UNIDROIT Principles"). The UNIDROIT
Principles will be referred to when an arbitral tribunal is in the
phase of resolving the dispute (i.e. when the merits are examined).
However, arbitration is a dispute resolution mechanism, and bears a
significant amount of procedural matters, as well as soft law that
aim to regulate such procedural matters, and which are arbitration
specific, will be the main focus of this newsletter article.
