Financement de l’arbitrage par un tiers : émergence d’une lex mercatoria expliquée par la mondialisation
Third party funding is not a new topic. At the beginning, it was felt as a vicious way to provide a funder an abusive interest. This is the reason why it was first condemned and rejected. Although this might be true, the perception has changed. It is now approved and frequently used in international trade. The Funder is, de facto, considered as the help that gives access to arbitration regardless the financial abilities of the opponents in international commercial litigation. Regulating third party funding is concretely under the responsibilities of the funder and the funded parts. Each State has its own intervention style even though common ground can be noticed. The real difficulty is that in arbitration, thirdparty funding cannot be regulated exclusively by national nor international conventional rules. At this point, lex mercatoria appears to be an alternative manner to establish a homogeneous model. As an international regime, lex mercatoria is the most relevant regulation that leads to this practical normalization. According to regime theory, lex mercatoria and international regime reveal exactly the same structure. As far as lex mercatoria is concerned, it shapes an international regime composed by a set of implicit or explicit regulations (principles, norms, rules and decisionmaking procedures). Around those regulations, all international actors involved in international commercial arbitration contribute to the development of a general and nonstate guideline that frames the practice of third-party funding. All things considered, the rise of lex mercatoria is obvious in the field of third-party funding. Globalization process is well able to explain this appearance of an international regime of lex mercatoria since multilateral cooperation emerges to standardize third-party funding in international commercial arbitration.
lex mercatoria International commercial arbitration third party funding lex mercatoria globalization international regime