International maritime industry comes out as one of these areas in which the resource to arbitration and other ADR devices have enjoyed a traditional and far-reaching character. Historically, a trend has existed for those disputes arising out of international maritime transport to be referred to arbitration, ousting jurisdiction of national courts. In fact, this bias has increased in recent years due both to the highly complex nature of the maritime industry and to the costs and delays that referring disputes to public courts encompass. Nowadays, international maritime arbitration looks as an extremely healthy arbitration. The increasing number of Arbitration institutions devoted to it, and the big amount and complexity of disputes referred to arbitrators are clear examples of this good health. Nevertheless, international maritime arbitration, as international commercial arbitration does as well, undergoes some problems -- a sort of “growth crisis” -- due to its quick development: the increasing delays that arbitration proceedings encounter and their expanding costs illustrate them. All these complications are broadening the resource to other ADR's devices, essentially mediation in this area. In fact, an increasing number of Arbitration Institutions in the maritime field have already developed several regulations on mediation as regards the international carriage of goods by sea in the last years. Nevertheless, international maritime arbitration cannot be approached as a unitary reality as regards those disputes referred to it. As a matter of fact, these controversies may heavily differ one from each other. There are some contractual disputes -- for instance, those arising from the use of the ship or the carriage of goods on board, or the construction of a ship or its sale -- whereas some other disputes arise from non-contractual obligations -- maritime rescue or collisions, for instance. In this article the legal regime of arbitration agreements in the field of disputes arising out of the use of the ship or the carriage of goods on board. The most relevant regulations are studied and their solutions approached. This study allows the reader to perceive some trends currently existing in such a relevant area of international maritime arbitration.