4 February, 2016
Two recent decisions by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Court of Arbitration will improve the efficiency of arbitration proceedings for all users, said arbitration expert Nicola King of Pinsent Masons.
The court will now publish the names and nationality of arbitrators sitting on ICC cases on its website, with details of whether the appointment was made by the court or by the parties, and which arbitrator is the tribunal chairperson, the ICC said.
The information will be kept up to date with any changes to the tribunal's composition, the ICC said.
For confidentiality reasons, the case reference number and the names of the parties and their counsel will not be published, it said.
The ICC has also published clear information on the cost consequences of delays in submitting draft arbitration awards.
Draft awards should be submitted by arbitration tribunals within three within three months of the last substantive hearing, or the filing of the last written submissions. Where there is only one arbitrator the time frame is reduced to two months, it said.
If the draft award is submitted late the court may lower the arbitrators' fees. Fees will be cut by 5-10% for a delay of up to seven months, 10-20% for up to 10 months, and 20% or more for draft awards that are over ten months late, the ICC said.
Fees may even be increased for tribunals who submit awards "expeditiously", the ICC said.
Alexis Mourre, chairman of the ICC said: "Users are concerned by the time and costs of international arbitrations, and rightly so. The expeditious resolution of disputes is one of our top priorities. The immense majority of our awards are timely made, yet there is still a minority of cases in which we see delays that are not acceptable to our users."
"By releasing this new note, we send a clear signal to tribunals that unjustified delays will not be tolerated, and we provide transparency on the consequences that the Court will draw from such situations," he said.
"This can only be progress if the ICC is going to put some pressure on arbitrators. It will come as a benefit to practitioners and to all users of the arbitration courts," King said.
Alistair Calvert, also of Pinsent Masons said the announcement is "evidence that arbitration institutions are beginning to recognise that they are in a competitive market with national courts and other institutions, and that they need to be more user-friendly."
Both policies were unanimously adopted at the ICC's bureau of the court in December, the ICC said.
For further information, please contact:
Ian Laing, Partner, Pinsent Masons
ian.laing@pinsentmasons.com
