Leadership, Legitimacy, Legacy: A Tribute to Alexis Mourre

The relationship between the courts and arbitration has occupied scholars for hundreds of years. Some courts have lamented the inroads made by arbitration into what they consider to be their territory—the dispensation of justice. Judicial hostility to arbitration has been well-documented, albeit with its fair share of hyperbole, but the last few decades have seen a gradual mellowing of that relationship as states have codified and defined the relationship between courts and international arbitration.

In the limited space available, this essay explores the evolving relationship between international arbitration and the courts. It starts at a time when there were few if any laws governing that relationship and continues to the present day where the relationship is defined by a network of rules, laws and conventions. Despite this, we see that the relationship remains in flux, with specialised commercial courts emerging to compete with, and complement, international arbitration. And international arbitration responding to ensure it is not displaced. The essay concludes by making a few reflections on how the relationship might involve in the future.