In an international, interdependent economy where multinational corporations abound, countries and states vie to serve in the coveted income-generating role of “domicile,” in part by passing laws that are attractive to businesses. Delaware has distinguished itself as the leading forum of choice for incorporation in the United States, with more than one million domiciliaries, including the majority of all publicly traded companies in the United States and roughly 64 percent of the Fortune 500. (See Delaware Division of Corporations, http://1.usa.gov/1nLuoat.)
In 2009, recognizing “the competitive threat to our country’s attractiveness as a domicile” due to “the cost and delay of litigating in U.S. courts,” as said in the petition in Strine v. Delaware Coalition for Open Government, Delaware’s legislature passed a law “designed to provide the state’s corporate citizens with an innovative option for resolving business disputes—arbitration conducted by judges widely recognized as expert in business law issues.”
