Originally from Soft Law in International Arbitration, Second Edition

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Drafting Arbitral Awards Part I _ General

Introduction

1. This Guideline sets out the current best practice in international commercial arbitration for drafting arbitral awards. It is divided into three parts dealing with
(1) arbitral awards in general, (2) awards of interest, and (3) awards of costs.

2. Part I of this Guideline provides guidance on:

i. how to draft and communicate arbitral awards (Article 1);
ii. the titles that are most commonly used (Article 2);
iii. the conduct of deliberations (Article 3);
iv. the form and content of awards (Article 4); and 
v. issues arising after a final award has been communicated (Article 5).

Preamble

1. Parties resort to arbitration to obtain a final and binding resolution of their dispute. It is the arbitrators’ role to resolve the dispute by deciding all of the disputed issues and recording their decision in a document, called an arbitral award. Arbitral awards should be prepared with the greatest care to ensure they conform with the terms of the arbitration agreement, including any arbitration rules and the law of the place of arbitration (lex arbitri), and are enforceable under the New York Convention.3 Any failure to comply with the agreed process and the requirements as to form and content may lead to challenges and create difficulties with enforcement.

2. Arbitrators have a wide discretion to resolve the disputes in arbitration by issuing different types of awards. Consequently, most national laws and arbitration rules do not define the various types of awards that are available but, when they do, they have taken an inconsistent approach to the labelling of awards. Even though the title of the award does not determine its legal effect, choosing the wrong title may lead to misunderstandings. Accordingly, arbitrators should be careful to use the appropriate title in order to avoid being prematurely and unintentionally deprived of power.

3. This Guideline addresses the issues that arbitrators need to consider when drafting awards with the aim of minimising any difficulties in their recognition and/or enforcement.