International Arbitration and the Republic of Colombia: Commercial, Comparative and Constitutional Concerns From a U.S. Perspective

Abstract

Although the Republic of Colombia is one of Latin America' economic powerhouses, with a free trade agreement with the United States on the brink of ratification by Congress, U.S. corporate actors know extremely little about Colombia' approach to international commercial arbitration, even though arbitration is commonly agreed to be the preferred method of resolving cross-border business disputes. The scarcity of information on this issue puts U.S. companies at a distinct disadvantage when negotiating with Colombian parties and places the entire dispute resolution process - and thus the economic benefit of the transaction - at risk.

This Article undertakes the first comparative analysis of Colombian arbitration law in English, setting Colombian statutory and case law side by side with international and U.S. law to provide U.S. parties with the information they need to (1) evaluate the risks and benefits associated with entering into an arbitration agreement with a Colombian party and (2) establish the kinds of procedures needed to provide optimal protection of the arbitral process and any resulting award. Not only does this research discuss important comparative and commercial matters, it also considers how a unique type of constitutional challenge - the acción de tutela - affects arbitration law in Colombia.

Keywords: arbitration, international, Columbia, comparative, free trade, Columbian, arbitral, accion de tutela