The IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration (referred to in this book simply as the Rules) are one of the few rocks on the tumultuous seas that are international arbitration. They are near universally adopted by arbitral tribunals either to guide their thinking or more formally to govern the process. Where institutional rules have gaps on procedure they are filled by the Rules.

First introduced in 1983 as the IBA Supplementary Rules Governing the Presentation and Reception of Evidence in International Commercial Arbitration; amended in 1999 and re-named the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Commercial Arbitration they were re-named IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration (dropping the word ‘Commercial’ to reflect the increasing use in investment treaty arbitral references) in 2010. They manage to steer a path between common and civil law standards and expectations. Some may criticise them for not going far enough but it is, frankly, an impossible task to get global acceptance of a single standard and, even were it possible, it would remove the flexibility for parties to craft a procedure that served the interests of the parties and the particular dispute that they have.

The Guide is written unashamedly from an English perspective as those are the laws that I have been trained in and use on a regular basis. Foreign (to England) sources are incorporated where possible.

The scheme of the book is, broadly, to reproduce the Rules Article by Article (printed in bold font), the relevant commentary to the Article (printed in italics) and then a commentary comprising particular words and phrases and a discussion.