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The doctrine of res judicata is an increasingly significant issue in international commercial arbitration as the number of disputes subject to arbitration, parties, and arbitral forums has grown. Schaffstein analyses the doctrine in domestic and international litigation and its application, then sets out to identify practical guidelines.

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Today, international commercial disputes regularly involve multiple parties, contracts, and issues. As a result, the number of disputes that are tried in two or more different forums has increased, giving rise to difficult issues regarding the conclusive and preclusive effects of prior judgments or awards. As a result, the doctrine of res judicata , which requires that a final decision by a court or arbitral tribunal be conclusive and that it should not be
re-litigated, is of increasing significance. Dr Silja Schaffstein provides the first practical and comprehensive guidelines for matters of res judicata for international commercial arbitration practitioners.

Structured in two parts, part one examines the doctrine of res judicata in domestic and international litigation, while part two determines whether and how the res judicata doctrine may be applied by international commercial arbitral tribunals. Dr Schaffstein identifies situations in which res judicata issues are likely to arise before international commercial arbitral tribunals and provides actionable solutions. The book determines the key features of the
doctrine of res judicata in the laws of England, the United States, France, and Switzerland, as representative of the common law system on the one hand and the civil law system on the other hand. The book also presents the doctrine of res judicata in the context of private international law, alongside its crucial aspects and
application in public international law by international courts and tribunals.

The aim of the work is to demonstrate how transnational principles of res judicata should be elaborated for international commercial arbitral tribunals. The analysis looks at how the doctrine should be applied by international commercial arbitral tribunals in their relations with other arbitral tribunals or state courts, and within the arbitral proceedings pending before them. The work sets out the transnational principles in the form of guidelines for internationalarbitrators.

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Few tasks provide the analytic challenge inherent in articulation of when and why a prior judgment or award will (or should) take binding effect before an arbitral tribunal. The superb treatise by Silja Schaffstein offers a stimulating study of res judicata in international arbitration, examining analogues in national litigation, public international law and conflicts-of-law principles. Comprehensive and thoughtful, her book will assist both scholars and practitioners in grappling with a subject that continues to resist facile solutions. Rusty Park, Professor of Law, Boston University; President, London Court of International Arbitration.

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