Language and Translation in International Commercial Arbitration

Anyone who has acted as arbitrator or counsel in an arbitration in which more than one language was used, sat as judge on an international court that had more than one working language, or served on a drafting committee of a multi language treaty knows how many unexpected complications, both procedural and substantive, the 'language issue' can create. And the problems that arise in that context are not limited to those that relate to the choice of the most appro priate translation of a particular word or that arise from a later discovered trans lation error. Although finding the most appropriate translation for a given word or phrase to be used when drafting legal documents intended to be equally au thentic, for example, is by no means always an easy matter. Language issues can present innumerable more serious types of problems depending on a par ticular legal setting; they can also have unforeseen and costly consequences. In this thoroughly researched and carefully structured book, Professor Tibor Varady focuses on the variety oflanguage issues that can arise at different stages of international commercial arbitration proceedings. He also proposes sound and creative solutions designed to help the parties to the proceedings, their arbi trators and counsel to anticipate and resolve these problems. The result is, to my knowledge, the first book-length monograph on the subject that addresses all language issues likely to arise in international commercial arbitrations.