Expansion of Arbitral Subject Matter: New Topics and New Areas of Law

Summary

This chapter traces how international arbitration has spread beyond ordinary commercial disputes into fields once considered unsuitable for private adjudication — a trend described as the decline, or even the death, of inarbitrability. It covers the move into competition law, consumer protection, intellectual property, insolvency and environmental matters, and the rapid growth of treaty-based investment arbitration, where claims increasingly touch on human rights, access to water and health and safety regulation. Observing that disputes against states over public-welfare measures affect communities beyond the parties, the chapter presents this expansion as a structural shift from state courts towards private dispute resolution that raises questions of legitimacy.