Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-c75p9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-31T23:23:36.726Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

International Arbitration and Judicial Politics in Authoritarian States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Mark Fathi Massoud
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article uses the case of Sudan to show how authoritarian regimes benefit from embracing international arbitration, allowing them to maintain domestic control and attract foreign investment. International arbitration ensures that foreign‐investment disputes are resolved outside of domestic purview, obviating the need for nondemocratic states to create independent courts. Research on judicial politics in authoritarian regimes has largely overlooked those private and extra‐judicial pathways—international arbitration tribunals—that illiberal regimes have been taking. Similarly, research in international commercial law has neglected domestic politics, overlooking arbitration's consequences for domestic stakeholders. Promoting international arbitration without paying heed to its side effects can unwittingly help illiberal regimes, particularly in weak states, to continue to repress their judiciaries and curtail the development of domestic legal institutions and the rule of law.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , Winter 2014 , pp. 1 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

References

Abouda, Alkoni Ali. 2010. The New Libyan Draft Law on Arbitration. International Journal of Arab Arbitration 2:31–43.Google Scholar
Agreement Between the Government of the Republic of Indonesia and the Government of the Republic of Sudan Concerning the Promotion and Protection of Investments. 1998. http://www.unctadxi.org/templates/DocSearch____779.aspx (accessed June 15, 2013).Google Scholar
Aguirre, Daniel. 2008. The Human Right to Development in a Globalized World. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Aljazy, Omar. 2008. Arbitration in Jordan: From Old to New. Journal of International Arbitration 25:219–229.Google Scholar
Al Kalyoubi, Samiha. 2010. The Role of the Egyptian Judiciary in Securing the Efficiency of Arbitration Agreements. International Journal of Arab Arbitration 2:17–29.Google Scholar
Aoun, Rita Bou. 2010. A New Draft Arbitration Law in the Republic of Yemen. International Journal of Arab Arbitration 2:73–96.Google Scholar
Asouzu, Amazu A. 2001. International Commercial Arbitration and African States: Practice, Participation, and Institutional Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Binham, Caroline, and Warrell, Hellen 2012. Saudis Seek Private Court in London. Financial Times, October 30. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/47db481c‐1f93‐11e2‐b273‐00144feabdc0.html#axzz2C4mDUljQ (accessed June 15, 2013).Google Scholar
Bishop, R. Doak. 2009. Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Against Sovereigns. Huntington, NY: JurisNet.Google Scholar
Born, Gary. 2001. International Commercial Arbitration: Commentary and Materials. The Hague, Netherlands: Transnational Publishers/Kluwer Law International.Google Scholar
Bowen, Rachel. 2010. International Imposition and Transmission of Democracy and the Rule of Law: Lessons from Central America. In Globalizing Justice: Critical Perspectives on Transnational Norms and Cross‐Border Migration of Legal Norms, ed. Jackson, Donald, Tolley, Michael, and Volcansek, Mary, 161–178. Albany: SUNY University Press.Google Scholar
Brower, Charles N., and Sharpe, Jeremy K. 2003. International Arbitration and the Islamic World: The Third Phase. American Journal of International Law 97:643–656.Google Scholar
Burr, J. Millard, and Collins, Robert O. 2003. Revolutionary Sudan: Hasan Al‐Turabi and the Islamist State, 1989–2000. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.Google Scholar
Cashisho, Louis. 2009. Commentary on the New Commercial Arbitration Rules in Syria. International Journal of Arab Arbitration 1:27–30.Google Scholar
Collins, Robert O. 2008. A History of Modern Sudan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Darwazeh, N., and El‐Kosheri, A. S. 2008. Arbitration in the Arab World: An Interview with Professor Ahmed Sadek El‐Kosheri. Journal of International Arbitration 25:203–210.Google Scholar
Dezalay, Yves, and Garth, Bryant G. 1996. Dealing in Virtue: International Commercial Arbitration and the Construction of a Transnational Legal Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dezalay, Yves, and Garth, Bryant G. 2011. Introduction: Lawyers, Law, and Society. In Lawyers and the Rule of Law in an Era of Globalization, ed. Dezalay, Yves and Garth, Bryant G. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dickerson, Claire Moore. 2009. Unified Business Laws for Africa: Common Law Perspectives on Ohada. London: GMB.Google Scholar
Dubai International Arbitration Centre. 2007. Symposium of Sudanese Bar Association: Seminar on Commercial Arbitration. Dubai International Arbitration Centre Journal 2:89.Google Scholar
Eaton, Kent. 2010. Subnational Economic Nationalism? The Contradictory Effects of Decentralization in Peru. Third World Quarterly 31:1205–1222.Google Scholar
El Ahdab, Jalal. 2009. Editor's Preliminary Note. International Journal of Arab Arbitration 1:7–8.Google Scholar
Foreign Investment Advisory Service. 2006. Sudan: Review of Administrative Barriers to Investment. Washington, DC: World Bank/International Finance Corporation.Google Scholar
Franck, Susan D. 2005. The Legitimacy Crisis in Investment Treaty Arbitration: Privatizing Public International Law Through Inconsistent Decisions. Fordham Law Review 73:1521–1626.Google Scholar
Franck, Susan D. 2009. Development and Outcomes of Investment Treaty Arbitration. Harvard International Law Journal 50:435–489.Google Scholar
Frye, Timothy. 2004. Credible Commitments and Property Rights: Evidence from Russia. American Political Science Review 98:453–466.Google Scholar
Galanter, Marc. 1974. Why the “Haves” Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change. Law & Society Review 9:95–160.Google Scholar
Gehlbach, Scott, and Keefer, Philip 2011. Investment Without Democracy: Ruling‐Party Institutionalization and Credible Commitment in Autocracies. Journal of Comparative Economics 39:123–139.Google Scholar
Gélinas, Fabien. 2000. Arbitration and the Challenge of Globalization. Journal of International Arbitration 17:117–122.Google Scholar
George, Alexander L., and Bennett, Andrew 2005. Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Ghias, Shoaib A. 2010. Miscarriage of Chief Justice: Judicial Power and the Legal Complex in Pakistan Under Musharraf. Law & Social Inquiry 35:985–1022.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, Tom. 2005. International Substitutes for Domestic Institutions: Bilateral Investment Treaties and Governance. International Review of Law and Economics 25:107–123.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, Tom, and Moustafa, Tamir 2008. Rule by Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Greig, R., Annacker, C., and Ziade, R. 2008. How Bilateral Investment Treaties Can Protect Foreign Investors in the Arab World or Arab Investors Abroad. Journal of International Arbitration 25:257–273.Google Scholar
Griffiths, Frances. 1996. Qualitative Research: The Research Questions It Can Help Answer, the Methods It Uses, the Assumptions Behind the Research Questions and What Influences the Direction of Research. A Summary of the Panel Discussion at the Conference “Exploring Qualitative Research in General Practice.” Family Practice 13:S27–S30.Google Scholar
Haddad, Ahmed. 2009. The New Syrian Arbitration Act. International Journal of Arab Arbitration 1:15–25.Google Scholar
Helmke, G., and Rosenbluth, F. 2009. Regimes and the Rule of Law: Judicial Independence in Comparative Perspective. Annual Review of Political Science 12:345–366.Google Scholar
Hendley, Kathryn. 1996. Trying to Make Law Matter: Legal Reform and Labor Law in the Soviet Union. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Hirschl, Ran. 2008. The Judicialization of Mega‐Politics and the Rise of Political Courts. Annual Review of Political Science 11:93–118.Google Scholar
Holt, P. M., and Daly, M. W. 2000. A History of the Sudan: From the Coming of Islam to the Present Day, 5th ed. Essex, UK: Pearson Education.Google Scholar
Huneeus, Alexandra. 2010. Judging from a Guilty Conscience: The Chilean Judiciary's Human Rights Turn. Law & Social Inquiry 35:99–135.Google Scholar
Johnson, A. R. 2010. Rethinking Bilateral Investment Treaties in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Emory Law Journal 59:919–968.Google Scholar
Jones Day. 2004. Arbitration in China. New York: Jones Day.Google Scholar
Kapiszewski, Diana. 2011. Power Broker, Policy Maker, or Rights Protector? The Brazilian Supremo Tribunal Federal in Transition. In Courts in Latin America, ed. Helmke, Gretchen and Rios‐Figueroa, Julio, 154–186. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kritzer, Herbert M., and Silbey, Susan S. 2003. In Litigation: Do the Haves Still Come Out Ahead? Stanford, CA: Stanford Law and Politics.Google Scholar
Kutty, Faisal. 2006. The Shari'a Factor in International Commercial Arbitration. Loyola L.A. International & Comparative Law Review 28:565–624.Google Scholar
Large, Daniel 2009. China's Sudan Engagement: Changing Northern and Southern Political Trajectories in Peace and War. China Quarterly 199:610–626.Google Scholar
Lynch, Katherine. 2003. The Forces of Economic Globalization: Challenges to the Regime of International Commercial Arbitration. The Hague, Netherlands: Kluwer Law International.Google Scholar
Mansour, Mouhamed Walid. 2010. The New Laws on Investment, Commerce, Corporations and Arbitration and Their Positive Effect on Investments in Syria. International Journal of Arab Arbitration 2:31–41.Google Scholar
Massoud, Mark Fathi. 2012. Lawyers and the Disintegration of the Legal Complex in Sudan. In Fates of Political Liberalism in the British Post‐Colony: The Politics of the Legal Complex, ed. Halliday, Terence C., Karpik, Lucien, and Feeley, Malcolm M., 193–218. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Massoud, Mark Fathi. 2013. Law's Fragile State: Colonial, Authoritarian, and Humanitarian Legacies in Sudan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McConnaughay, Philip J., and Ginsburg, Thomas B. 2006. International Commercial Arbitration in Asia. Huntington, NY: JurisNet.Google Scholar
Moustafa, Tamir. 2003. Law Versus the State: The Judicialization of Politics in Egypt. Law & Social Inquiry 28:883–930.Google Scholar
Moustafa, Tamir. 2007. The Struggle for Constitutional Power: Law, Politics, and Economic Development in Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Moustafa, Tamir. 2008. Law and Resistance in Authoritarian States: The Judicialization of Politics in Egypt. In Rule by Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes, ed. Moustafa, Tom Ginsburg and Tamir, 132–155. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Neumayer, Eric, and Spess, Laura 2005. Do Bilateral Investment Treaties Increase Foreign Direct Investment to Developing Countries? World Development 33:1567–1585.Google Scholar
Nolan‐Haley, Jacqueline, Abramson, Harold, and Chew, Pat K. 2005. International Conflict Resolution: Consensual ADR Processes. New York: Thomson‐West.Google Scholar
Nzelibe, J. 1996. When the Multinational Meets the Patrimonial State: Prospects for Improving Transnational Liability. Journal of International Law and Practice 5:417–462.Google Scholar
OHADA. 2011. Ohada: L'harmonisation Du Droit Des Affaires En Afrique. Yaoundé, Cameroun: l'Organisation pour l'Harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires.Google Scholar
Peerenboom, Randall. 2009. Judicial Independence in China: Lessons for Global Rule of Law Promotion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Popova, Maria. 2006. Watchdogs or Attack Dogs? The Role of the Russian Courts and the Central Election Commission in the Resolution of Electoral Disputes. Europe‐Asia Studies 58:391–414.Google Scholar
Powell, Emilia Justyna, and Rickard, Stephanie J. 2010. International Trade and Domestic Legal Systems: Examining the Impact of Islamic Law. International Interactions 36:335–362.Google Scholar
Rone, Jemera. 1996. Behind the Red Line: Political Repression in Sudan. New York: Human Rights Watch.Google Scholar
Sanchez Urribarri, Raul A. 2011. Courts Between Democracy and Hybrid Authoritarianism: Evidence from the Venezuelan Supreme Court. Law & Social Inquiry 36:854–884.Google Scholar
Schedler, Andreas. 2010. Authoritarianism's Last Line of Defense. Journal of Democracy 21:69–80.Google Scholar
Schor, Miguel. 2009. An Essay on the Emergence of Constitutional Courts: The Cases of Mexico and Colombia. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 16:173–194.Google Scholar
Seawright, Jason, and Gerring, John 2008. Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research. Political Research Quarterly 61:294–308.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Martin. 1981. Courts: A Comparative and Political Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Martin. 2008. Courts in Authoritarian Regimes. In Rule by Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes, ed. Ginsburg, Tom and Moustafa, Tamir, 326–336. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Gordon. 2008. Singapore: The Exception That Proves Rules Matter. In Rule by Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes, ed. Ginsburg, Tom and Moustafa, Tamir, 73–101. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sornarajah, M. 1989. The Uncitral Model Law: A Third World Viewpoint. Journal of International Arbitration 64:7–20.Google Scholar
Staats, Joseph L., and Biglaiser, Glen 2012. Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America: The Importance of Judicial Strength and the Rule of Law. International Studies Quarterly 56:193–202.Google Scholar
Stern, Rachel E. 2010. On the Frontlines: Making Decisions in Chinese Civil Environmental Lawsuits. Law & Policy 32:79–103.Google Scholar
Stern, Rachel E. 2013. Environmental Litigation in China: A Study in Political Ambivalence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sykes, Alan O. 2005. Public Versus Private Enforcement of International Economic Law: Standing and Remedy. Journal of Legal Studies 34:631–666.Google Scholar
Tani, Mustapha Trari. 2009. Arbitration in All Related Disputes to Oil, According to the New Algerian Hydrocarbons Law. International Journal of Arab Arbitration 1:81–88.Google Scholar
Tezcür, Güneş Murat. 2009. Judicial Activism in Perilous Times: The Turkish Case. Law & Society Review 43:305–336.Google Scholar
Trochev, Alexei. 2004. Less Democracy, More Courts: A Puzzle of Judicial Review in Russia. Law & Society Review 38:513–548.Google Scholar
UNESCO. 1999. Report of the Sub‐Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. E/CN.4/2000/88. http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/d39481d20176d35d8025687e003fb446?Opendocument (accessed June 15, 2013).Google Scholar
Victor, David G., Hults, David R., and Thurber, Mark C. 2012. Oil and Governance: State‐Owned Enterprises and the World Energy Supply. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wang, Yuhua. 2010. When Do Autocrats Build Clean Courts? Sub‐National Evidence from China. APSA 2010 Annual Meeting Paper. http://ssrn.com/abstract=1644171 (accessed June 15, 2013).Google Scholar
Werfalli, Mohamed I. 2009. Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in Libya in a Nutshell. International Journal of Arab Arbitration 1:37–39.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2011. World Development Report 2011. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
World Bank. n.d. World Development Indicators. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator (accessed June 15, 2013).Google Scholar
Sudan Arbitration Act, 2005.Google Scholar
Sudan Investment Encouragement Act, 1999.Google Scholar
Sudan Arbitration Act, 2005.Google Scholar
Sudan Investment Encouragement Act, 1999.Google Scholar