The Undervalued Values of Arbitration: Impartiality and Independence

Pavlo I. Byelousov, Galyna M. Shyller

Any arbitration practitioner always bears in mind a truism that a high-quality arbitration is a result of “joinder” of (a) fairness and professionalism of parties (their counsels), on the one hand, and (b) diligence, expertise, independence and impartiality of arbitrator(s), on the other.

In fact, both (i) parties standing in front of a choice of appointing or challenging an arbitrator or (ii) arbitrator analyzing his or her status in order to accept or decline an appointment are puzzled when it comes to the process of defining the exact scope and limits of impartiality and independence…