UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules (2010) and UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-Based Investor-State Arbitration - World Arbitration Reporter (WAR) - 2nd Edition
James E. Castello, B.A. (Yale), M.A. and J.D. (University of California, Berkeley), is a partner in the Paris office of King & Spalding International LLP and a member of the firm’s International Arbitration Group. He has advised and represented clients in a wide range of legal disputes, especially international arbitrations (both institutional and ad hoc), and is admitted to practice in New York, Washington, D.C. and Paris. Since 2001, Mr. Castello has been a member of the United States’ delegation to UNCITRAL’s Working Group II and has actively participated in all working sessions since then, which have produced, inter alia, revisions in the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, a new version of the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, and the new UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration. The views expressed in this chapter are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Government or of King & Spalding. In 2007, Mr. Castello was named to a five-year term as a Court Member of the London Court of International Arbitration, where he served on the drafting committee for the 2014 LCIA Arbitration Rules. He is now a member of the LCIA’s Board of Directors as well as President of the LCIA’s European Users Council. He is also a member of the International Advisory Board of the Vienna International Arbitral Centre. Mr. Castello first encountered arbitration under the UNCITRAL Rules nearly 30 years ago, as a legal assistant to Judge Howard Holtzmann on the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal at The Hague, following which he served as law clerk to Justices William J. Brennan, Jr. and Thurgood Marshall on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Originally from World Arbitration Reporter (WAR) - 2nd Edition
Preview Page
I. BASIC INFORMATION
A. History and Background of the Institution
The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (“UNCITRAL” or “the Commission”) is unlike other institutions that establish arbitration rules, in that the Commission never becomes involved in individual arbitrations. Thus, UNCITRAL does not administer arbitral proceedings, nor does it appoint arbitrators. Rather, UNCITRAL’s mission is “to further the progressive harmonization and modernization of the law of international trade.” The Commission, which was established in 1966, currently has a rotating membership of 70 States, which are distributed among five regions of the world and reflect a diversity of economic and legal systems. These States are of course also members of the United Nations, and the term of each Commission member (which can be renewed) is six years.
The staff of UNCITRAL’s Secretariat, which is based in Vienna, Austria, but is situated organizationally within the U.N.’s Office of Legal Affairs, consists of a small group of lawyers whose expertise lies in commercial law and whose work is devoted to advancing the Commission’s objectives, which include the harmonization of trade law and usages. Those objectives are primarily pursued “by preparing and promoting the use and adoption of legislative and non-legislative instruments in a number of key areas of commercial law.” These areas of law include “dispute resolution, international contract practices, transport, insolvency, electronic commerce, international payments, secured transactions, procurement and sale of goods.”
In its second year, UNCITRAL considered “[s]teps that might be taken with a view to promoting the harmonization and unification of law in this field [of international commercial arbitration].” This led to the commissioning of a report from a Special Rapporteur, Professor Ian Nestor of Romania, who ultimately recommended several projects that UNCITRAL might undertake, including the “drawing up of a model set of arbitration rules.” As Professor Nestor explained, “The Special Rapporteur would prefer model rules containing basic provisions which would subsequently be recommended to all arbitration centres for gradual inclusion in their rules on organizations and operation.”
UNCITRAL ARBITRATION RULES (2010)
I. BASIC INFORMATION
A. History and Background of the Institution
B. Model Clause
1. Scope of application
2. Matters of procedure to be addressed in an
arbitration agreement
3. Other matters that parties may wish to address
in the arbitration agreement
a. Waiver of appeal or other recourse against
an award
b. Which version of the rules applies?
C. Arbitrators
1. Number of arbitrators
2. Appointment of arbitrators
a. Sole arbitrator
b. Three-member tribunal
c. Tribunals having other numbers of arbitrators
d. General conditions governing appointments
by the appointing authority
e. Qualifications of arbitrators
f. Multiple parties
3. Challenges to and removal and replacement of arbitrators
a. Challenges to arbitrators
b. Removal of arbitrators
c. Replacement of arbitrators
4. Waiver as to arbitrators’ liability
D. Arbitration Costs and Administrative Fees or Other
service charges
1. Costs of arbitration—in general
2. Arbitrators’ fees and expenses
a. Reasonableness of fees and expenses
b. Oversight and possible revision of fees and
expenses
II. ARBITRAL PROCEDURE UNDER THE UNCITRAL
RULES
A. Commencement of Proceedings and Written
Pleadings
B. Appointing Authority
C. Consolidation and Joinder
D. Confidentiality
E. Legal Seat and Language of the Arbitration
F. Applicable Law
G. Conduct of Proceedings
H. Interim Measures
I. Hearings and Evidence
J. Awards
III. APPENDIX
A. The UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules (2010)
B. Contact Details for the United Nations International Commission on Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
C. Bibliography