Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 07/2011

Is the party-appointed arbitrator a "pernicious institution"? A reply to Professor Hans Smit

Giorgio Sacerdoti

April 2011

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

Abstract

Some readers of the Columbia FDI Perspective No. 33 of December 14, 2010 may have been surprised to read Hans Smit's contribution against party-appointed arbitrators. The opening of his Perspective could not be expressed in more sweeping terms: "In my judgment, party-appointed arbitrators should be banned unless their role as advocates for the party that appointed them is fully disclosed and accepted. Until this is done, arbitration can never meet its aspiration of providing dispassionate adjudication..."