• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.141-160
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• 2009

This article examines some factors that should be taken into consideration as the number of arbitrators to constitute arbitral tribunal, how to select them and the characteristics of arbitrators by their expert field, and the various problems that may arise in selection of arbitrators. When dispute parties select one arbitrator or a chairman of arbitral tribunal, they should consider the characteristic of case. When legal problem is more important, they should select a lawyer, whereas when trade practice is more important, they should select a businessman. Especially, when they decide to select a businessman as one arbitrator or a chairman of arbitral tribunal, they allow him not to write the reason of award if possible because he is lack of know-how to write it. Also, dispute parties should acquire the information of the main career and character of arbitrator, his experience of arbitration and so on before they select him.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.17-67
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• 1993

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.21-39
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• 2010

The role of the arbitrator is so significant in the international arbitration that its success or failure may depend on the credibility of the arbitrator. It has long been understood that the ideal arbitrators are should be independent, unbiased, and have the requisite legal and/or technical expertise and experience for the case at hand. Arbitrators may be selected either by agreement of the parties, by appointment by arbitral institution or by a national court. This article outlines the main method of selecting the members of the tribunal plus some of the benefits and burdens of each method. One of the most common methods of appointing arbitrators is by agreement of the parties. This approach is very attractive because it allows parties to submit a their dispute to judges of their own choice, that they also agree on. Most arbitral institutions have a panel of arbitrators and their arbitral rules. So, if disputants agree on a specific arbitral institution, they can settle their disputes by arbitration easily and quickly. If disputants are unable to agree on arbitrator(s) or a specific arbitral institution, method of selecting arbitrator(s) by national court must be employed.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.147-165
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• 2008

Appointment of arbitrators is very important in arbitration. As it has been a long laps since Korean peninsula was devided into two parts, South and North, it has come to be too much gaps between South and North in the law, social system, commercial practice and etc.. South Korea is familar to international commercial practice and capitalistic legal system generalized internationally in modern times. On the other hand as North Korea was closed society for a long time, they are not familar to international commercial practice and market economy. In this connection, commercial disputes arising from the transactions between South and North will occur frequently and it will be very difficult to select governing law or commercial practice referred to the disputes. Under the circumstances, when and if an arbitrator from South or North will be appointed as presiding arbitrator in the tribunal composed by three arbitrators, the part from which the presiding arbitrator come will be a majority, and it will be advantageous to the parties came from the part of which the presiding arbitrator come from. Such being the case, sole arbitrator or presiding arbitrator needs to be appointed among foreigner. Otherwise I recommend the tribunal composed by two arbitrators and umpire system. As to arbitrator's fee, as there is a big gap in its economic aspects between South and North, I supposed to need establishing the fund made by corporation with South and North in order to compensate arbitrators from South or abroad for their fee. Finally it is more important to prevent disputes arising from transactions between South and North. In order to prevent the disputes, education for North Korean about international commercial practice and skill to make a contract of international sale of goods and investment are needed.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.3-20
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• 2011

An arbitrator is an impartial person chosen to decide the issue between parties engaged in a dispute. But the arbitrator appointed by a party or arbitration institution shall be impartial or independent and should disclose to the administrator any circumstances likely to give rise to justifiable doubts as to his impartiality or independence. If, at any stage during the arbitration, new circumstances arise that may give rise to such doubts, the arbitrator shall promptly disclose such circumstances to the parties and to the administrator. Upon receipt of such information from an arbitrator or a party, an party must challenge any arbitrator whenever circumstances exist that give rise to justifiable doubts as to arbitrator's impartiality or independence. Under these circumstance, there were two cases declared by the Korean Supreme Court in relation to the cancellation of the arbitration award. One arbitral case was cancelled for the reason of the having been arbitral procedure without disclosure arbitrator's impartiality, and the other case was refused to cancel the ward for the reason of the having been arbitral procedure without challenge an arbitrator. There are not, however, the standard to decide what is definitely the arbitrator's impartiality or independence and the difference on qualification between arbitrator chosen by an party and neutral arbitrator in korean arbitration law and rules. Nevertheless, korean court require arbitrator to be impartial and independent and the arbitration parties to challenge arbitrator' impartiality or independence.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.183-213
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• 2011

China and North America have been South Korea's biggest trading partner long time. As the volume of trade has been increasing, the disputes between Korean companies and Chinese Companies and between Korean companies and North American Companies have been increasing. If these disputes are settled by Arbitration, the parties appoint arbitrators who are empowered to proceed the arbitration procedure and have a power to render an arbitral award. Accordingly, it is very important for the parties to select who is an arbitrators in Arbitration. But if the parties doubt their arbitrator(s)'s fairness and independency, they can discharge them in accordance to law and arbitration institute's rules. In comparison with arbitrator system for way of selection and discharge among Korea, China and North America, some differences are found. First, if parties fail to appoint co-arbitrators or the presiding arbitrator by a mutual agreement, the court has the right to appoint them or him in Korea and North America whereas the Chairman of CIETAC choose him in China. Second, the authority to decide whether arbitrator is discharged owing to his fairness and independency, depends on arbitration institute and court in Korea and North American whereas it depends on the Chairman of CIETAC only.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.29-51
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• 2016

This paper reviews the Supreme Court decision of the United Kingdom in Jivraj v. Hashwani (2011) concerning the employment issue of arbitrators, falling within the exception of genuine occupational requirement under the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, and nationality of arbitrators. In 2011, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom delivered its judgment in Jivraj v. Hashwani, unanimously overturning decision of the English Court of Appeal. The facts of this case and the decision of the Court of Appeal have been widely discussed. The decision of the Supreme Court has been met with approval within the international arbitration community in London, having restored the legal position to that prior to the Court of Appeal's ruling. Thus, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the Court of Appeal's finding that arbitrators are the employees of the arbitrating parties. Arbitrators were held to be genuinely self-employed, and therefore outside the scope of the Regulations or Equality Act(2010). As such, the anti-discrimination provisions are not applicable to the selection, engagement or appointment of arbitrators. Most importantly, the Supreme Court's finding that arbitrators are not employees removes the possibility of challenges to arbitration agreements on the grounds that they are in breach of the Equality Act. As a practical matter, parties no longer need to consider carving out nationality provisions when drafting arbitration agreements.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.47-64
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• 2015

Pursuant to Article 109(1) of the Attorney-at-Law Act of Korea, a person, not an attorney-at-law, who receives or promises to receive money, articles, entertainment or other benefits or who gives or promises to give those things to a third party, in compensation for providing or mediating legal services, such as examination, representation, arbitration(emphasis added), settlement, solicitation, legal consultation, making of legal documents, etc. shall be punished by imprisonment with prison labor for not more than 7 years or by a fine not exceeding KRW 50 million or may be punished by both and there is no specific provision on qualification of arbitrator except on nationality of an arbitrator in the Arbitration Act of Korea. Then, the question arises, can any non-lawyer arbitrator who receives arbitrator's fees be punished in accordance with the Attorney-at-Law Act in Korea? To search for an answer for this matter, this paper examines the Arbitration Act or the Civil Procedure Code of 33 major countries in the world and explains a research on the participation ratio of non-lawyer arbitrators in all 360 arbitration cases registered in 2012 at the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB).

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.23-41
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• 2007

The role of ICC Court of Arbitration in ICC Arbitration is critical in maintaining the good reputation and worldwide recognition. While most arbitration institutions are the products of regional on national private associations, which play a relatively limited role in appointing or confirming the arbitrators, the Court of Arbitration is not only international in the appointment of arbitrators through the each National Committee, but also intervene in the confirmation of the prospective arbitrators proposed by the parties. Thus the ICC Arbitration is undoubtedly the most highly-supervised form of institutional arbitration available. The purpose of this paper is to examine the appointment and confirmation system of ICC Arbitration, to find the distinctive features of the ICC Rules of Arbitration and to check how to apply the features in the Rules of International Arbitration for the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board(KCAB Rules). Although the KCAB Rules have inherent limitations in the appointment of the arbitrators comparing with the ICC Court. They do not have any confirmation system of the arbitrator proposed by the parties. Although no arbitral institutions is in a position to guarantee completely the ultimate quality and efficacy of the process, the ICC, more than any other institution has historically endeavored to do so through a combination of the efforts of its International Court of Arbitration and National Committees. Composed of legal professionals of more than 75 nationalities, the Court, with the support of its permanent Secretariat in Paris, brings to bear on the decisions that it is responsibility to make the collective and disparate knowledge and experience of a multinational body. Therefore, if the KCAB wants to attract many international disputes, it should try to benchmark the ICC Rules of Arbitration, expecially the Article 9, to secure the prominent arbitrators throughout the world, even though a lot of limitations are exist. The positive role of the ICC Court of Arbitration gives us very important signal.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.49-65
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• 2010

The expanded role of courts in arbitral procedures is said to have certain detrimental effects on the cost-effective approach to arbitration. This is the case when the court is appointing an arbitrator, pursuant to the specific domestic legal regime. The danger of decisions, especially those with expanded role of courts can create delays and hurdles. Even with contradictory viewpoints, the role of the court should complement the arbitral tribunal and not impede the functioning of arbitration independent of the judicial system. In this paper, two recent cases in Korean Supreme Court are reviewed, trying to find the proper implications on further arbitration practices especially in the stage of arbitrator appointment. Even though the proper appointment of arbitrators is essential to the existence of valid arbitration proceedings, appointment of arbitrators by the courts should constitute an administrative power, and not a judicial power. The cases reviewed make clear that the court must play a facilitative role in international commercial arbitration by assisting the parties in appointing the arbitral tribunal, the court intervention must be kept to a minimum.