Two recent books enrich the literature analyzing international arbitration. One sets out a commentary and materials for practitioners and students. The other publishes revised papers presented at the Twelfth Sokol Colloquium.

Gary B. Born, International Commercial Arbitration in the United States: Commentary and Materials (Kluwer Law and Taxation Publishers, 1994)

In this volume Gary Born publishes a companion text to his very successful volume on international civil litigation in U.S. courts (written with David Westin). Mr. Born brings to both volumes extensive knowledge and experience. He is a partner in the London office of the Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering law firm.

The volume is comprised of nine chapters and 150 pages of appendices. The chapters include not only extensive explanatory text but also excerpts from legal texts followed by probing notes and questions. Legislation, arbitral rules, arbitral awards, and court decisions are taken from both the United States and foreign sources. In the course of his 42-page analysis of the selection of arbitral situs by U.S. courts, for example, the author sets out excerpts from six U.S. court decisions, the UNCITRAL Model Law, and the UNCITRAL/AAA/ICC Rules. There are frequent citations to secondary literature but virtually no excerpts.

Despite a format that invokes memories of law school casebooks, practitioners will find Mr. Born's commentary very helpful. Many topics are introduced with an overview of the principal issuesEven experienced practitioners will be provoked by his probing questions that follow familiar material.

For all users of the volume, however, the fifteen appendices make the volume an invaluable resource. These set out the texts of international conventions, domestic legislation, the UNCITRAL Model Law, the UNCITRAL Rules as well as the rules of the principal arbitral bodies, and Model Clauses.

Richard B. Lilich & Charles N. Brower eds., International Arbitration in the 21st Century (Transnational Publishers Inc., 1994)

The Twelfth Sokol Colloquium addressed "International Arbitration in the 21st Century: Towards 'Judicialization' and Uniformity?" Participants at the 1992 colloquium examined the consequences of the increasing formality of arbitral procedures and the preoccupation with the issue of uniformity. Papers of ten of the participants appear with revisions in this volume.

These papers are gathered under four main headings: Procedural Aspects, Governing Law, Review of Awards, and Some Special Problems. Among the contributors are Howard M. Holtzman, Arthur W. Rovine, Albert Jan van den Berg, Andreas Bucher, and Richard B. Lillich. Professor Richard B. Bilder incisivly summarizes the colloquium with concluding remarks reproduced at the end of the volume.

Professor Bilder notes that participants were not necessarily persuaded that judicialization and lack of uniformity were necessarily bad. He concludes by noting (p. 279) that the consensus "seemed to be that, while there are always improvements to be made, the prognosis for international arbitration in the 21st century is generally good.