Neutrality vis-a-vis Party Autonomy in Appointment of Arbitrators

The scope of the article focuses on the examination of the legal doctrines relating to party autonomy and neutrality in the context of party appointments in arbitrations. Although both concepts are recognized in arbitration law, party autonomy in appointment of arbitrators often poses a challenge in ensuring neutrality in appointment and ensuring the sanctity of the arbitration process. Some safeguards in ensuring neutrality and impartiality are provided in the Indian Arbitration Act including the requirement of any appointee to provide a disclosure at the very outset regarding any justifiable doubts regarding his independence and impartiality. The recent judicial trend in decisions by the Indian Supreme Court to safeguard neutrality in contracts where one party has a unilateral right to appoint a sole arbitrator, or the entire three-member tribunal have been examined. The article also conducts a comparative study of the concept within the framework of the UK Arbitration Act. The article also examines the strength of the safeguards in place to ensure independence and impartiality especially in the context of arbitrators being empowered to rule in their own case regarding the existence of “justifiable doubts”.