Maud Piers - Arbitration in the Digital Age: The Brave New World of Arbitration

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Maud Piers and Christian Aschauer

Maud Piers and Christian Aschauer

The interaction between technology and arbitration is not something for the future it is happening right now. The challenge that lies before us is how to integrate technology in an orderly fashion and use it in order to improve arbitration. Technology will change the way we arbitrate. It is up to the arbitration community to decide on how this happens, not when.

The international arbitration community has always been focused on improving the efficiency and overall quality of arbitration. The different stakeholders in arbitration seek to optimize such factors as the duration and costs of arbitration, as well as the transparency and predictability of these factors. The key question is now how technology can (continue to) play a role in achieving these goals.

Three ways of interaction between arbitration and technology are distinguished here.

The first one is the most comprehensible, i.e. whereby parties and arbitrators make use of technology, e.g. online and electronic tools, in support of the procedure. Costs and time are saved by communicating solely by way of email and filing submissions and exhibits on an online platform or drop box, the access to which is provided by the arbitral institution or the arbitrator. Moreover, over the last few years, procedural hearings have been increasingly held by telephone or video-conference. In contrast, witness hearings or hearings on the merits today largely remain physical encounters which have to be planned well in advance and which have an important impact on the arbitration costs. How much longer will it take before an arbitrator, counsel and parties, all in the comfort of their own office, log in to a virtual hearing room wearing their virtual reality glasses, instead of flying out to some major capital for a weeklong witness hearing. There can be little doubt that this evolution adds to the efficiency of the arbitral process. The question is of course whether this does not pose a threat to the principles of fairness and due process. We believe that this should not be the case, provided that the tools are available to cover the issue of security.