The Composition of Arbitral Tribunals
Abstract
- Some Preliminaries
This paper deals with the composition of arbitral tribunals under ss. 6–11 of the 1988 Arbitration and Conciliation Act ("the 1988 Act"), Cap. 19 of the Law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1990. These sections govern arbitration with no foreign element. They are supplemented by Arts. 5–14 of the Arbitration Rules which are set out in the First Schedule to the 1988 Act. The paper will deal only in passing with ss. 43–46 of the 1988 Act. Ss. 43–46 are the sections governing "international" arbitration.
The basic principle underlying the composition of arbitral tribunals is that the parties are free to choose; it is only to the extent that the parties have not clearly made a choice that the law will choose for them on grounds of convenience. That the parties' agreement should be paramount — call this "the free choice principle" — is obviously both fair to the parties involved and expedient. The more arbitration tends to be compulsory rather than voluntary, (1) the less attractive it will be to parties who would otherwise wish to enter into arbitration agreements, and (2) the weaker will be arbitration's claim to be regarded as significantly distinct from court litigation.
