Appointment of Arbitrators: Law and Practice
Abstract
Introduction
Disputes are an often unavoidable aspect of any legal relationship. To businesses they are a particularly insidious form of over-head. To individuals they are indicative of mistrust, anxiety and personal ill-feeling. It is therefore important that once a dispute looms, to find ways of minimizing its impact. Chief among these is the choice of an appropriate procedure for dealing with the dispute.1
Traditionally, the act of dispute control has in most cases been the exclusive preserve of the courts, which have at its disposal, the full coercive power of the state to enforce decisions.2 As a result of the various problems associated with the court system, litigants have had to seek alternative form of dispute resolution, one of which is Arbitration.
The umpire who presides in a court system is usually called a Judge, while in an Arbitration proceeding, the man who resolves the dispute is called an Arbitrator.
The theme of this paper is an examination of the practice and legal framework which regulate the appointment of Arbitrators.3
