Josef Wolfgang Paulson
92 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 725
International commercial arbitration is experiencing a period of rapid growth as a means of dispute resolution. As arbitration can be an expensive process, there has also been a growth in the practice of third-party funding for arbitration. The old British common law doctrines of maintenance and champerty, which seek to prevent “officious intermeddlers” from gaining a stake in the lawsuits of others, stand as potential barriers to the wider proliferation of third-party dispute resolution funding. These old doctrines are alive and well in some nations but abolished in others, and confusion can result. Within the United States, there is similar variance across the several states. To avoid confusion and maximize efficiency in the realm of international trade, the United States should adopt unifying federal legislation that abolishes the doctrines of champerty and maintenance, establishes funding agreement disclosure guidelines, and standardizes U.S. law on third-party dispute resolution funding.
