Complex Arbitrations 3rd ed: The Standard Reference on Multi-Party, Multi-Contract Disputes
The ICC's 2025 dispute resolution statistics recorded 2,531 parties across newly registered cases — the second-highest figure on record — with construction, infrastructure, and energy projects, the sectors most prone to multi-party and multi-contract structures, continuing to drive a large share of the caseload. The ICC's own new Arbitration Rules 2026, effective from 1 June, keep refining how these disputes are consolidated and joined. The underlying questions, though, have not changed: who is actually bound by the clause, when can proceedings be consolidated, and what happens when a related award lands in a second arbitration on the same project.
Complex Arbitrations: Multi-party, Multi-contract and Multi-issue, now in its third edition, is Bernard Hanotiau's answer to those questions — a fully updated and renewed edition of the 2006 original that has been used and cited by courts and tribunals worldwide ever since. It draws on decisions from several hundred courts and both published and unpublished awards from every major arbitral institution.
The book earns its place in three recurring situations: drafting or reviewing a group-company or joint-venture structure, where the theories on extending an arbitration clause to non-signatories determine who can actually be pulled into a dispute; managing an active multi-contract dispute, where the joinder, consolidation, and intervention chapters map directly onto the procedural fight; and assessing enforcement risk, where the res judicata chapter addresses what happens when a related award from the same project is rendered elsewhere.
For a law library serving corporate counsel or construction and energy practice groups, this remains the standard reference on multi-party procedure — a natural complement to project-specific titles in the arbitration collection.
CLNZ Books ships this title worldwide, with invoicing available for institutional and library orders.
Q&A
Q: Why are multi-party arbitrations becoming more common?
A: The ICC's 2025 statistics recorded 2,531 parties across new cases — near a record — driven largely by construction, infrastructure, and energy projects involving multiple related contracts.
Q: Can an arbitration clause bind a company that never signed it?
A: The book analyses the theories courts and tribunals use to extend an arbitration clause to non-signatories, including group companies and states.
Q: What's new in the third edition?
A: An expanded body of arbitral awards and case law from more jurisdictions, updated for legislation and institutional rules adopted since the second edition.
Q: Who is the author?
A: Bernard Hanotiau, author of the first and second editions, both frequently cited by courts and tribunals on multi-party and multi-contract issues.
Q: Where can I buy Complex Arbitrations: Multi-party, Multi-contract and Multi-issue 3rd ed?
A: Through CLNZ Books, with worldwide shipping and institutional invoicing available.