In recent years, international business disputes have increasingly been resolved through private arbitration. This book details how an elite group of transnational lawyers constructed an autonomous legal field that has given them a central and powerful role in the global marketplace. Building on Pierre Bourdieu's structural approach, this book shows how an informal, settlement-oriented system became formalized and litigious. Using mulitple examples, the book explores how international developmetns can transform domestic methods for handling disputes and analyzes the changing prospects for international business dispute resolution given the growin presence of such international market and regulatory institutions as the EEC, WTO and NAFTA.