On 7 October 2026, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (the “Court”) ordered the removal of an arbitrator from an ongoing construction arbitration in Atkinsréalis Construction (Pacific) Inc v GIP Construction Ontario East Ltd (“Atkinsréalis v GIP”). The Court held that the arbitrator’s prepared, adversarial questioning of the applicant’s two principal witnesses created a reasonable […]
Rules of Ethics for Arbitrators: Which Apply?
An undisclosed relationship, a private communication with one party or a failure to devote sufficient attention to proceedings may raise concerns about an arbitrator’s conduct. Assessing those concerns requires identifying the applicable obligations and the standard against which the conduct should be measured. In international arbitration, those standards are drawn from several sources rather than […]
Can Arbitrators Ask Artificial Intelligence for Its View on Legal Issues?
Artificial intelligence (“AI”) is increasingly being used in international arbitration for legal research, document review, translation, and drafting. However, its use becomes difficult to assess when an arbitrator turns to AI not merely to process information, but to obtain a view on a legal issue that the tribunal must decide. There is presently no generally […]
Buried Hill: Arbitrator Disqualified Over Bias Concerns
On 11 February 2026, in Buried Hill v. Turkmenistan, the two remaining arbitrators, Mr Siqueiros and Mr Goldberg (the “Unchallenged Arbitrators”), accepted Buried Hill Serdar Limited’s (the “Claimant”) proposal to disqualify Professor Philippe Sands, KC, from the tribunal. Their decision was based on Articles 14(1), 57 and 58 of the Convention on the Settlement of […]
Criminal Liability of Arbitrators
Arbitration is a widely used method of resolving commercial and investment disputes globally, valued for its neutrality, confidentiality, and procedural flexibility. Arbitrators play a key role in this system, with their integrity, independence, and competence being essential to the arbitral process. Nonetheless, with this authority comes responsibility. Arbitrators are generally protected from civil suits under […]