Phillip Taylor MBE review. International Arbitration in Korea

BOOK REVIEW

INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION IN KOREA
By Joongi Kim

ISBN: 978 0 19875 543 2

Oxford University Press

SOUTH KOREA – THE NEXT INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION HUB?
FIND OUT MORE IN THIS NEW O.U.P TITLE

An appreciation by Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers
and Reviews Editor, “The Barrister”

Wherever there is commerce there will inevitably be commercial disputes – and this is no less true within the burgeoning economy of Korea. (This of course is South Korea in case you were wondering.)

Authored by Joongi Kim writing from Seoul, this very readable and intriguing new title from the Oxford University Press explores with scholarly thoroughness the development and the current realities of dispute resolution in a country that in no more than fifty or so years, has raised itself from abject poverty to economic pre-eminence in a fiercely competitive global marketplace.

Not too surprisingly, Korea has also become a key player in international arbitration, hence the pressing need for an authoritative legal text on this subject -- in English, mind -- which has now been met with the publication of this book. It is not too difficult to predict that the book will be welcomed by the arbitration community worldwide.

‘Korea’s accelerated growth in arbitration remains intertwined with its economic development,’ says the author adding that ‘Korea has catapulted itself from one of the world’s poorest countries to one of the world’s largest creditors. (Recall too, the proliferation of South Korean brands, Samsung, for example, etc. etc.)

Placing Korea’s economic prowess firmly in an international context, Gary Born writing from London, remarks in the book’s foreword that Asia has played a central role in a number of key developments in international arbitration which he deems to be ‘the preferred means of resolving cross-border commercial investment and other disputes.’

Korean courts, he explains have rendered important decisions on the meaning of, for example, the New York Convention and ICSID Convention, both ratified by S. Korea, where the UNCITRAL Model Law been adopted. In international arbitration, these highly successful institutions are pivotal. International lawyers as well as arbitrators will be all too familiar with these acronyms, but if you don’t fall into either category, you are reminded that UNCITRAL is the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, while the other is the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

While on this subject, the book provides a list of abbreviations which is very handy, not to mention tables of cases, legislation and arbitration and, for conscientious researchers, an extensive bibliography. The appendix contains the full text of Korea’s 2016 Arbitration Act translated by the author who describes it as ‘an unofficial translation’.

‘The final challenge for Korea,’ he concludes, ‘will be whether it can become a bona fide hub of international arbitration on a par with Hong Kong and Singapore and -- one might add -- London.

Can Korea attract arbitration cases that have no connection with it, or with the region? Judging from the contents of this book, it might appear that this dynamic and enterprising country (although continually under threat from its malevolent northern neighbour) might well provide serious competition for other established centres of arbitration in the future.

The publication date is cited as at 2017 and the book “remains a work in progress”.