Driver Trett, a multi-disciplinary consultancy providing dispute resolution services, has published the article “Careful what you write: The impact of Issue Conflicts in International Commercial Arbitration,” written by Akin Gump international arbitration partner Hamish Lal, counsel Brendan Casey and associate Léa Defranchi.
The term “issue conflict,” according to the authors, “refers to an arbitrator’s relationship with the subject matter(s) of the dispute which results in actual or apparent bias.” There is, however, very little guidance, they write, on independence and impartiality in this regard.
Many arbitral institutions do not adequately address the topic and, as a result, Lal, Casey and Defranchi observe that “the users of international arbitration, in particular lay clients, are left with unsatisfactory ambiguities or a ‘sense of unease’ with respect to an arbitrator’s independence and impartiality resulting from this relationship to an issue in dispute.”
To read the article in its entirety, please click here.