International arbitrators face a challenge: to improve the efficiency and predictability of arbitration proceedings. In this volume of ICCA's Congress Series, international experts and practitioners in the field of arbitration put forward answers to this challenge.
For coherence, the organizers of ICCA's 12th International Arbitration Congress, held in Vienna in November 1994, divided the forum into two working groups: ‘Planning Efficient Arbitration Proceedings' and ‘The Law Applicable in International Arbitration'.
Group I focused on the arbitrator's ability to plan proceedings, using various formal and informal methods. UNCITRAL Draft Guidelines—which provide arbitrators with a written reminder of items to cover while planning proceedings—received particular attention. During debate, proponents emphasized the ‘optional' character of the guidelines to allay fears that more efficiency would reduce the ability to solve disputes flexibly.
Group II addressed the complications arbitral tribunals may encounter when different law applies to the substance of a dispute and to the procedure itself. This group also turned to three other relevant systems of law: the law governing the capacity of the parties, the law applicable to the arbitration agreement, and the appropriate conflicts-of-law rules to determine the governing substantive law.
Both groups reported a desire for a more standardized and international approach to arbitration proceedings and emphasized the need to prevent parochial national preference from creating unnecessary obstructions.