"This study is a welcome contribution to an ongoing debate. ... this book is a valuable addition to the stock of books on international investment law." (Christoph Schreuer, Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht RabelsZ, Vol. 85 (1), 2021)
"Katia Fach Gomez's new work Key Duties of International Investment Arbitrators: A Transnational Study of Legal and Ethical Dilemmas represents a most welcomed addition to the current debate on the role and ethics of arbitrators. ... The discussion undertaken within this work has the potential to spark the debate further." (João Ilhão Moreira, Revista Brasileira de Arbitragem, Vol. 16 (63), 2019)
"Her timely analysis will serve as invaluable input into discussions on adjudicators' ethics in the abovementioned reform processes and in the EU-led establishment of a MIC. ... Fach Gómez's book offers a persuasive account of the potential virtues of codes of conduct in attaining higher ethical standards of investment adjudicators and thus improving the ISDS regime." (Martin Dietrich Brauch, Investment Treaty News, September 19, 2019)
"This book offers a useful framework for the treatment of the key duties of arbitrators, and serves as a clear signpost for the current fascinating debate concerning the future of adjudicators' duties, as well as for future studies in the field." (Anqi Wang, Chinese Journal of International Law, May 28, 2019)
1 Introduction. A Transnational Study of Legal and Ethical Dilemmas.- 2 The Duty of Disclosure: An Overview.- 3 The Duty of Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest in Investment Arbitration Disputes.- 4 The Duty of Personal Diligence and Integrity.- 5 The Duty of Confidentiality.- 6 Other Duties. Control of Arbitration Costs and Continuous Training.- 7 Conclusion. A New Code of Conduct for Present and Future Investment Adjudicators.
This book critically analyses how arbitration cases, institutional rules and emerging codes of conduct in the international arbitration sector have dealt with a series of key arbitrator duties to date. In addition, it offers a range of feasible and well-grounded proposals regarding investment arbitrators’ duties in the future. The following aspects are examined in depth:
the duty of disclosure
the duty to investigate
the duty of diligence and integrity, which in turn may be divided into temporal availability, a non-delegation of responsibilities, and adhering to appropriate behaviour
the duty of confidentiality, and
other duties such as monitoring arbitration costs, or continuous training.
Investment arbitration is currently undergoing sweeping changes. The EU proposal to create a Multilateral Investment Court incorporates a number of ground-breaking developments with regard to arbitrators. Whether this new model of permanent “members of the court” will ever become a reality, or whether the classical ex-parte arbitrator system will manage to retain its dominance in the investment arbitration milieu, this book is based on the assumption that there is a current need to re-examine and rethink the main duties of investment arbitrators.
Apart from being the first monograph to analyse these duties in detail, the book will spark a crucial debate among international scholars and practitioners. It is essential to identify arbitrators’ duties and find consensus on how they should be reshaped in the near future, so that these central figures in investment arbitration can reinforce the legitimacy of a system that is currently in crisis.