Originally from AAA/ICDR Handbook on International Arbitration Practice

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Recent efforts by the International Bar Association and established arbitral institutions to provide detailed guidance on an arbitrator’s duties of independence and impartiality are highly instructive with respect to an arbitrator’s relationships with the parties and their counsel,1 but less so with respect to an arbitrator’s relationship with the subject matter of the dispute. The latter type of relationship, which could involve an arbitrator’s prior statements about an issue in dispute (an “issue conflict”), has been the subject of scant guidance2 and has become the subject of growing controversy over the last few years. This chapter examines some recent cases in which an international arbitrator has been challenged because of an issue conflict in an arbitration proceeding on which he or she is sitting.3