This essay introduces a symposium on ethics in international arbitration within the Singapore arbitration ecosystem, situating the contributions within a broader account of arbitral ethics as system design. Singapore and Singapore International Arbitration Centre have long been associated with procedural innovation, but their more important contribution may be their sustained attention to the ethical infrastructure that supports arbitral legitimacy. Drawing on six contributions addressing arbitrator selection, disclosure and waiver, duties of curiosity, third-party funding, illegally obtained evidence, and the ICSID-UNCITRAL Code of Conduct, the essay identifies three cross-cutting themes. First, information functions as a regulatory resource. Without reliable information, party autonomy, market discipline, conflict checks, and procedural fairness are impaired. Second, selfregulation in arbitration operates through an architecture of accountability that links institutional rules, soft law, challenge procedures, and court review. Third, legitimacy is a dynamic output of institutional design, dependent on transparency, disclosure, enforcement, and adaptation to new ethical risks. The essay argues that ethical rules should be evaluated functionally, by asking whether they correct identifiable system failures without producing distortions such as exclusion, strategic behavior, or over-deterrence. It concludes that securing legitimacy in international arbitration requires more than aspirational principles. Legitimacy requires explicit, operational governance at every stage of the arbitral process, supported by institutional leadership, empirical evaluation, and continued attention to the relationship between consent, integrity, and inclusion.
Asian International Arbitration Journal