Part II Understanding the Users of International Arbitration, 4 Putting the Client First

Subject(s):

Arbitral agreements — Arbitral tribunals — Arbitrators — Claims — International courts and tribunals, procedure

This chapter considers the question of whether arbitration remains client-focused. It looks at two aspects of modern arbitration practice which may not be as client focused as they could, and should, be. The first is the need to reduce the time and cost of arbitration; the second is the fear of arbitral tribunals that their awards will be open to challenge. The discussion starts from the very basic and very obvious proposition that clients’ interests are most likely to be aligned before there is a dispute. Once a dispute has arisen, even the most reasonable of clients can become unreasonable. Thus, if anything is going to be done to address the expensive and time-consuming aspects of the dispute resolution process, it needs to be done before the dispute starts. It needs to be in the rules which will apply to the arbitration.