Arbitration is widely used in the international commercial arena. When contracting parties come from different countries, arbitration is often selected to adjust contractual disputes. One of the reasons for this preference has to do with the adoption in 1958 of the New York Convention, which effectively secures the enforcement of arbitral agreements and awards. Another reason is that arbitration enables the parties to create a neutral forum, detached from local courts, for transborder controversies to get adjudicated in an impartial manner. The argument that courts may be biased against ousiders raises interesting issues about the best ways to guarantee impartiality in a world where nationality seems to matter. International commercial arbitration also poses questions concerning the role of arbitrators in the lawmaking process. Are arbitrators generating a body of transnational law that is autonomous from democratically-enacted national legislation?