International arbitration is facing a moment of revolutionary change due to new technologies' irruption into the entire arbitration procedure. Technical-legal concepts such as remote meetings, e-discovery, e-bundling, e-hearing, remote cross examination, virtual persuasion, cyber-security protocol, e-deliberations, algorithmic decision making, algorithmic bias, encryption, and digital signatures are part of day-to-day life in international arbitration. Technology's impact on international arbitration is unlikely to decrease after the COVID crisis has been overcome; on the contrary, the way that the arbitration milieu positions itself vis-a-vis technology will be a key factor in determining the future of arbitration. Faced with this challenging scenario, the book reflects on a hitherto novel legal topic: the relationship of commercial and investment arbitrators with this increasingly ubiquitous and rapidly changing technology.
This book applies journalism's "5 W questions" to the underexplored issue of international arbitrators' digital competence. Arriving at a workable definition of what digital competence is in the current international legal context is the necessary starting point in determining who has to be digitally competent in this T-context. If attention is focused on the figure of the international arbitrator and his/her relationship with other actors in international arbitration, the question arises as to when international arbitrators need to be digitally competent. This connects with where, which is responsible for determining whether there are currently any soft or hard law provisions that impose a digital competence duty on international arbitrators, as is already the case with respect to lawyers in some jurisdictions. It should be noted that the leading arbitral institutions worldwide are gradually incorporating these technological realities into the latest versions of their rules and guidelines, which also suggests that in the near future they will have to set their sights on their arbitrators themselves. All this leads to the essential question of why international arbitrators' digital competence is relevant from a legal point of view, prompting reflection on whether Luddite arbitrators can be successfully challenged and whether technological incidents attributable to arbitrators may have effects in terms of award annulment or enforcement.
As it is the first monographic study to scrutinise the rapidly changing relationship between arbitrators and technology, the book sparks a crucial debate among practitioners and international scholars. Academically rigorous and making use of the latest legal material, the book emphasises arbitrators and practitioners' needs and presents them with carefully selected hands-on topics. The unprecedented and well-grounded proposals for arbitrators' digital competence are intended to be a call to action for its broad target audience.
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