Andrea Marco Steingruber*
(2012) Oxford U Comparative L Forum 2 at ouclf.law.ox.ac.uk | How to cite this article
Consent is considered the cornerstone of international arbitration. Yet in the last few years there has been an increasing discomfort with this deep-rooted assumption, with a discussion emerging. Scholars have spoken of the ‘dogma of consent’ or the ‘marginalization’ of it. The main reason for this is that arbitration has evolved and expanded. Multiparty situations involving complex jurisdictional issues are now quite common, and investment arbitration has experienced an exponential growth the last two decades. The article suggests that the consensual nature of arbitration should be looked at from different perspectives. These different perspectives should highlight that the consensual nature of international arbitration is a complex phenomenon and that the qualification of arbitration as a ‘consensual’ dispute resolution mechanism needs to be differentiated and reconciled with the jurisdictional side of arbitration.