Inarbitrability: a ghost hovering over Europe?, in Ferrari (ed.), Limits to Party Autonomy in International Commercial Arbitration

In many jurisdictions, almost all international disputes that involve an economic interest are considered arbitrable. National legislators exercise self-restraint in limiting arbitrability, thus intervening only as a matter of extrema ratio to reserve the power to adjudicate certain disputes to national courts. One cannot underestimate, however, that there are also warning signs of a backfire against arbitrability. In Europe, in particular, it appears that arguments that were considered buried are being revived, seemingly triggered by the (increasingly unified) European private international law regime. This paper examines this phenomenon and criticizes the approach followed in the case-law of some EU Member States