Resorting to "arbitration" is an alternative to submitting a contract to the court of justice of the applicable jurisdiction. In an arbitration process, the legal dispute is settled by arbitrators rather than by judges. Resorting to international arbitration is frequent in business, particularly for transactions with one or several of the following characteristics: (i) several countries involved; (ii) technically complex (E.g. project finance); (iii) confidentiality issues; and (iv) where arbitration is deemed to be more impartial, cheaper and/or quicker. As a result of the signature of the New York Convention on Arbitration, the enforcement of an international award is in many cases easier than that of a court decision. As of September 2007, 141 ouf of 192 UN nations had ratified this convention.

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