Glancing at the list of contributing authors to International Commercial Dispute Resolution, one will immediately notice that the general editor has carefully selected experienced lawyers from the leading law firms of their respective jurisdictions to write each chapter.
This book is useful in providing an overview of the civil legislation process in each of the most important that it covers. In addition, it has succinctly set out the most important procedural steps that have to be taken in the litigation process of each of the jurisdictions.
It encompasses the litigation practices of major common law countries as well as those countries from civil law jurisdictions. Each chapter of the book covers critical subjects such as: the overall court structures in each jurisdiction; a summary of steps and procedures to be taken before one gets to trial stage. Each chapter then covers post-judgement issues including the enforcement of arbitral awards.
The chapters covering some of the common law jurisdictions including England are up to date and have efficiently covered the new English Civil Procedure Rules. The chapters from civil law jurisdictions such as France and Germany have carefully dealt with new rules on disclosure of documents while highlighting the difference in fundamental principles with English disclosure rules and US-style discovery. The chapters from countries such as Russia and Sweden, where there are comparatively fewer publications in the English language, are very up to date and practical.
The authors in each chapter cover every important issue that can arise during commercial litigation and they also provide an overview of how to obtain evidence under the Hague Convention. Each chapter ends with a short but succinct paragraph summary of the key features of litigating in their respective jurisdictions.
The book achieves its goal of providing an overview of litigation in the various jurisdictions and is of great assistance in providing effective and immediate guidance to solicitors and in-house counsel alike on how to resolve commercial disputes in the 24 jurisdictions covered.
Given the global practice of many law firms and practitioners these days, this book is timely and useful to the experienced international dispute resolution practitioner and beginner alike.
Business Law International, Sept 2009