December 14 of this year will mark the five-year anniversary of the Rules on the Efficient Conduct of Proceedings in International Arbitration (the “Prague Rules”). At the 17th Century Renaissance Martinic Palace in Prague, Vladimir Khvalei, Chairman of the Board of the Russian Arbitration Association, heralded the adoption of the Prague Rules as the solution to the “Creeping Americanisation of International Arbitration.”1 That Americanization, in the eyes of the Prague Rules’ drafters, was a perceived arbitral trend toward common law (as opposed to civil law) norms, which in turn was blamed, in principal part, on the increasing use of a rival set of rules known as the International Bar Association (IBA) Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration (the “IBA Rules”).

Originally published in Mealey's Arbitration Report - September 2023.