Originally from Inside the Black Box: How Arbitral Tribunals Operate and Reach Their Decisions - ASA Special Series No. 42

JULIAN LEW:

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, thank you to Michael E. Schneider and Bernhard Berger for their introductions this morning and a personal thank you to them and ASA for this invitation to me to moderate this first session today.

This ASA conference, which I have only managed to attend on several occasions, is a major event in the international arbitration world and well known for the content that it has and the extent of views that are expressed. I hope we will be able to benefit from that during this opening session. There is no monopoly or exclusivity on knowledge and experience and these opportunities to share ideas and experiences are extremely valuable.

Our topic this morning is how decisions are made in arbitration and when should decisions be made in arbitrations. This involves both theory, when one sits here cold and says this is the way we think it ought to be—and of course a great deal comes from theory in the way one approaches things—and, on the other hand, there are practical issues, and every case differs on its facts, on the circumstances and in particular the composition of the tribunal and the personalities that are there.