Discussion draft now available: Joint ICCA-ASIL Task Force on Issue Conflicts in Investor-State Arbitration
In late 2013, the then-Presidents of ASIL and ICCA, Donald Donovan and Jan Paulsson, named a Task Force of experienced arbitration practitioners and scholars to examine the growing phenomenon of challenges to arbitrators in investment cases alleging some form of “issue conflict.” The stated mission of the Task Force was “to evaluate and report on issue conflicts in investor-State arbitration, and to make recommendations on best practices going forward.” The Task Force co-chairs are Professors Laurence Boisson de Chazournes and John Crook, assisted by Rapporteurs Christian Leathley, Ina Popova, and Ruth Teitelbaum.
Drawing on the views and comments of Task Force members and a review of challenge cases, legal literature, and practice in other areas, and with the outstanding assistance of the Rapporteurs, the Task Force co-chairs have prepared the accompanying draft report analyzing the issue, which the authors believe is more correctly described as “inappropriate predisposition.” The report describes several patterns that appear to be emerging from decided challenge cases to date.
The Task Force welcomes comments from interested persons on the draft report. Comments should be addressed to the co-chairs prior to 1 May 2015, at Laurence.BoissonDeChazournes@unige.ch and jrc1648@yahoo.com.