Part II Legal Framework: Courts, Statutes and Treaties, A Arbitral Jurisdiction, 6 Non-Signatories and International Contracts

Like consummated romance, arbitration rests on consent.1 An agreement of some sort waives each side’s right to invoke the jurisdiction of otherwise competent courts.2 Nevertheless, arbitrators do hear cases involving entities and individuals that never signed an arbitration clause. Continental scholars sometimes refer to “extending” the arbitration clause. Lawyers in Anglo-American traditions tend to speak of “joining non-signatories”.3 Few expressions accurately capture what happens when arbitrators hear claims by or against a person that never signed the...