Part II Staking Out Theoretical Boundaries and Building the Regime, 9 Duck-Rabbits, a Panel of Monkeys, and the Status of International Arbitrators

This chapter examines the dual role of arbitrators as service providers and adjudicators. The public conceptualization of international arbitrators has often leaned towards seeing them as either contract providers of sorts or adjudicators, but never both. The arbitrator's status is thus often a conflict between ‘service provider’ and ‘justice provider’. Yet arbitrators are, as discussed in previous chapters, professionals whose ethics are grounded in real-world perspectives. This chapter analyses several ideas and philosophies that corroborate a dual conception of the ideal arbitrator as both service provider and justice provider, and that neither aspect is independent from the other. Several institutions across the world are beginning to recognize this duality, fortunately, as the greatest strength of an international arbitrator is his ability to straddle these dual roles, rather than subject themselves to mere one-dimensional representations.