Major Arbitration Institutions Issue Joint Statement on COVID-19
The world’s major arbitration institutions have jointly issued a statement encouraging parties and arbitrators to collaborate and discuss “any impact of the pandemic and potential ways to address it in an open and constructive manner,” and to “mitigate the effects of any impediments to the largest extent possible while ensuring the fairness and efficiency of arbitral proceedings.”
The institutions call on the parties and arbitrators to “use the full extent of our respective institutional rules and any case management techniques that may permit arbitrations to substantially progress without undue delay despite such impediments.”
The “call to arms” thus seeks to unleash the creativity, practicality, and good-will of parties and arbitrators to address the challenges of today’s “at-home” world. The institutions do not offer any concrete steps that might be taken in this regard; as arbitration is a system based on the consent of the parties, the parties must be the drivers of innovation that can, at the same time, ensure due process.
