Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

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The U.K. Supreme Court’s decision in Halliburton Co. v. Chubb Bermuda Insurance Ltd., [2020] UKSC 48 (available at http://bit.ly/3oZEOu0) (case page can be found at http://bit.ly/2qP6067), on arbitrator bias and nondisclosure, may be one of those occasions that is more relevant because of the background information than what the court actually decided.

The ruling was that an arbitrator appointed as chairman by a court who failed to disclose two subsequent appointments by one of the parties arising out of the same incident was not biased.

Presented in those terms, it looks like a very backward step in the development of a culture of openness which the International Bar Association Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration and many arbitration organizations have been trying to foster.