Rethinking the New York Convention

The New York Convention is regarded as one of the most successful treaties in the past fifty-five years. Its simplicity and brevity in wording but complexity and diversity in application have triggered endless discussions, debates and writings. Rethinking the New York Convention – A Law and Economics Approach for the first time offers a unique jurisprudence-oriented analysis by applying two major analytic approaches, namely Darwinian legal theory and game theory.

Four key topics are analysed in this book: the evolution of the treaty, the competition among various jurisdictions, lex mercatoria and governing law in arbitration, and the doctrine of public policy. This choice of key topics offers the opportunity to look into these so-called core dilemmas surrounding the New York Convention from different angles, inspiring the reader to think outside the box. In addition, against the background of the current financial crisis, this book focuses on the use of the New York Convention in the context of global governance and discusses the need for a reform of the existing regime of cross-border transactions and activities.

Rethinking the New York Convention – A Law and Economics Approach explores the topic in a refreshing style and will be of use for anyone who is interested in arbitration or law and economics.


‘This [book] is a brave initiative, clearly marking off [the author’s] analysis from existing research in the field. Dr Shen is to be warmly congratulated on making a fresh and important contribution to this field; [this] book deserves every success and will surely become an essential work of reference.’
Simon Roberts, Professor in Law, London School of Economics

‘This is an ideas book, as well as a law book. It is full of insights, and refreshingly free of special interest advocacy. The one cause that is advocated with force is the need for a global approach. This, and the scholarly standard of the writing, places the book in the first league of the outstanding literature which arbitration law continues to generate.’
Sir William Blair in Arbitration International (2015) 1