History
The « Revue de l’arbitrage » was created by the « Comité français de l’arbitrage » in 1955 and has been, since that date, the main legal journal devoted to arbitration in the French language.
Originally and until 1970, it was presented as the « Bulletin d’information du Comité français de l’arbitrage », edited under the auspices of Maître Jean Robert.
This quarterly publication took on the form of a real scientific journal in 1970, when Professor Philippe Fouchard took up the duties of Editor-in-Chief. It was he who gave the journal the characteristics it still has today and which have made it, across all countries, one of the leading periodicals on the subject.
Characteristics
The scientific nature of the « Revue de l’arbitrage » entails that it only publishes articles and comments on the condition of being guaranteed exclusivity in all languages. Contributions are either spontaneously presented by their authors, or commissioned from them by the Editorial Board. Manuscripts are systematically the subject of exchanges between the author and the Editorial Board. Since 2011, a Reading Committee has been assisting the Editorial Board with the processing of manuscripts addressed to it, and a Scientific Committee has provided the Editorial Board with ideas for areas that could be covered or for new subjects that could be dealt with.
The themes are approached from different angles. Indeed, the law of arbitration is viewed critically, in the broad sense of the term, both from the aspect of general theory, but also from the angle of domestic, international and comparative law. The « Revue de l’arbitrage » has always taken care not to separate theoretical and practical views, because in this subject matter, more than in others, they cannot be dissociated. The authors, particularly numerous, are very diverse: French and non-French, practitioners or academics.
Content: Presentation of the Sections
The Doctrine section is made up of substantive articles written by arbitration specialists.
The French Jurisprudence section features one or more texts of decisions emanating from a French state court, each accompanied by a note written by a commentator. This section is supplemented by one entitled Chronicle of French Jurisprudence, which, without publishing the text of decisions of lesser importance, nonetheless devotes observations to them.
In order to bring recent decisions to the attention of readers without delay, Case Summaries are published in the form of keywords and summaries.
All the case law is included in an analytical index, which appears at the end of the issue and which allows thematic research, thanks to the keywords which accompany each decision.
In addition to French case law, non-French, European or arbitral jurisprudence and chronicles of foreign jurisprudence are included as and when the significance thereof or current events dictate. Due to its prominent position, Swiss law is the subject of a regular Chronicle of Swiss Jurisprudence, published in issue 4 of each year.
More recently, other regular chronicles have appeared, in order to cover particular areas of arbitration or neighboring dispute resolution methods: thus, issue 1 of each year contains a Chronicle of Law on Amicable Methods of Settlement of Conflicts [Amicable Dispute Resolution], while issue 2 contains a Chronicle of Arbitral Jurisprudence on Investments Law, issue 3 presents a Chronicle of Arbitral Jurisprudence in Sports Matters and issue 4 contains a Chronicle of Arbitral Jurisprudence in Public International Law.
A Documents section publishes non-French laws, arbitration rules, etc. translated in French, specially produced by or for the « Revue de l’arbitrage ». Next comes the Information section, then the Bibliography and Books Received sections.
ISSN: 0556-7440
