THE RESPONSIBILITY OF GOVERNMENTS FOR THE ENFORCEMENT OF ARBITRAL AWARDS: Adapted from a paper presented to the Ninth Open Session of the ICAC 63 Plenary Meeting, Mumbai, India, December 2, 2004

摘要

The cotton industry functions as an open network, which moves cotton from the field to the mill. Participation in the cotton supply trade network carries with it the obligation to adhere to a set of well-established principles grounded on the assumption that the corresponding patty will honor his contract, resolve disputes through amicable negotiations, or submit the dispute to recognized and impartial industry arbitration fora. Since its inception, the cotton trade has used as its principle the social capital of trust, which acknowledges the existence of shared values or norms and requires the adoption of these positive values in the industry's reciprocal business transactions. In recent years, the patterns of trade have changed as textile production moved from the developed to the developing world. Among new textile producers, a minority has not readily accepted the essential ethic of trade and has deemed a price swing against their position as reason to abrogate their contractual obligations and to ignore arbitration awards. By doing so, the minority adds significantly to the costs of doing business, and jeopardizes a well-established system of trade.