There seems to be a general consensus in the arbitration community about the fact that users are in need for more—or, rather, for more easily accessible—information about arbitrators. What is more, this perceived lack of information seems to be on a lot of people’s minds as almost every other arbitration-related conference features a panel on the topic. As more than nine out of ten respondents to the Survey indicated that international arbitration continues to be the preferred method of resolving cross-border disputes (p. 5, Chart 1), the practice of arbitration is expected to reach new heights in the foreseeable future. It would follow that the need for more proficient arbitrators will increase accordingly. In this likely scenario, the first signs of which are already manifest, access to relevant and reliable information about arbitrators becomes as important as ever. With this in mind, we asked respondents whether they were satisfied with their level of access to enough information to make an informed choice about the appointment of arbitrators.

It may come as a surprise to some that nearly three quarters of the total respondent pool (70%) responded in the affirmative (p. 21, Chart 20). Admittedly, it is likely that this high percentage is partly a reflection of the large number of private practitioners who participated in this study. That said, when results were broken down by respondents’ primary role, some interesting variations surfaced. The full-time arbitrators’ subgroup, for instance, reflected an even higher level of satisfaction: more than 80% of the subgroup indicated that they have enough information about their fellow arbitrators. Most notably, however, in the in-house counsel subgroup just over half of in-house counsel (57%) declared themselves satisfied with the level of information on arbitrators they have access to. This figure is particularly important in this analysis as in-house counsel, together with the companies they represent, are the end users and the central players of arbitral proceedings. It further reflects that information about arbitrators among arbitration users is scant and the need for more transparency in this regard has become obvious.

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