L’autorité de chose jugée des décisions relatives à l’indépendance des arbitres - Revue de l’arbitrage View L’autorité de chose jugée des décisions relatives à l’indépendance des arbitres by - Revue de l’arbitrage L’autorité de chose jugée des décisions relatives à l’indépendance des arbitres 2016 1 An
arbitrator’s independence is determined, at the time of the constitution of the
arbitral tribunal, either by the institution chosen by the parties, or by the “juge d’appui”
(the state court with power to supervise the process). As the law currently
stands, the court with powers of annulment can adopt a different position from
that of the arbitral institution, whereas res judicata resulting
from the decision of the “juge
d’appui”
will prevent the court seised of an annulment application to examine afresh the
independence of the arbitrator, in the absence of any new circumstance. Should
the law in this respect be modified? Whilst one can easily abandon the idea of
attributing the effects of res
judicatato
the decisions of arbitral institutions, it appears that oversight by the court
of appeal of the decision of the “juge
d’appui”
could be allowed, either by negating the existence of res judicata,
or by the possibility of a deferred recourse to the courts. Revue de l’arbitrage