The Four Musketeers of Arbitral Duty (Les Devoirs De L’Arbitre: Ni Un Pour Tous, Ni Tous Pour Un)
2001 Cahiers de l'Arbitrage 13 (2011)
revised 8 Revista de Arbitragem E Mediação 117 (A. Wald, São Paulo, 2011)
adapted The Four Musketeers of Arbitral Duty, in 8 ICC Dossiers 25 (ICC Institute of World Business Law 2011)
Boston Univ. School of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 17-28
18 Pages Posted: 19 Aug 2017
Date Written: January 1, 2011
Abstract
Fans of the Alexandre Dumas novel Three Musketeers will remember that the adventure includes a fourth young man, d'Artagnan, who hopes to become one of the King’s guards, along with his friends Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, living by the motto “All for one, one for all”. Likewise, an arbitrator’s generally include four key obligation: accuracy, fairness, and efficiency, as well as vigilance in promoting an enforceable award. Prevailing litigants normally hope that the arbitral process will lead to something more than a piece of paper. To this end, they expect arbitrators to avoid giving reasons for annulment or non-recognition to any authority called to review the award. Two judicial decisions, one in France and the other in the United States, highlight the complex interactions among these duties. In both instances, arbitral awards were vacated for failure to balance competing duties in the manner desired by the reviewing judges.
Keywords: Arbitration, International Arbitration, Accuracy, Fairness, Efficiency, Three Musketeers, Caribbean Niquel, Stolt-Nielsen
JEL Classification: K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation