Conflict of Treaties on International Arbitration in the Southern Cone (Mercosur)

Abstract

International arbitration has traditionally encountered much hostility in Latin America. The setting has changed significantly in the last decade: many countries have renovated their legislation on arbitration, most countries have ratified important international conventions. Many countries now think to have provided the necessary framework. This was not seldom the consequence of more or less subtle pressure by international organizations who were alerted by the often harsh criticism by international lawyers pointing out the adverse affect by the legislative deficiencies for foreign investments. Is this a new era of arbitration due to better regulation? This contribution focuses on one particular problem of advancing arbitration through changing the norms: the efforts of legal harmonization of regulation on arbitration by international treaties from the perspective of the MERCOSUR and his associates Bolivia and Chile as well as the resulting problems of conflicts of treaties. This reveals the delicate problems resulting from the difficulty of choosing between traditional local regulatory approaches and the internationally accepted standards set forth by the UN-Convention. The still unsolved tensions are still an obstacle to arbitration in this region.

Keywords: international commercial arbitration, conflict of treaties, MERCOSUR, OAS, CIDIP, enforcement of foreign awards

JEL Classification: K33, K41, F13