In its own way, international arbitration has grown immensely and is one of the leading dispute resolution mechanisms with as much importance as the law courts. Moreover, it is much faster than state National courts as it uses international laws that are sometimes out of the scope of domestic courts and this sole advantage makes the system much more favorable for international disputes than the National courts.
There is barely any sector in the legal system that is growing as fast as international arbitration, and one of the major reasons for this growth is due to the system embracing of technology. Just like in other areas where technology and digitalization have triggered vast improvement, international arbitration seems to be the only legal system harnessing digitalization for innovation.
Digitalization and International Arbitration
Digitalization and International Arbitration have been synonymous with each other for the past couple of years, with arbitration practitioners subscribing to more efficient ways of handling cases. In almost one way or the other, international arbitration in its current state seems to use digitalization in its proceedings, and this has led to a high level of efficiency.
Even before the turn of 2020, Arbitral tribunals had begun to adopt the use of technology in international arbitration. Several professionals had already chosen the use of email and Pdfs in sharing documents to ensure that the Arbitration process is semi seamless and, to a level, very efficient.
However, the real breakthrough and landmark setter of the system in embracing digitalization was in 2020, when the pandemic was at its peak. At the time, Virtual Arbitration was something that trendsetting professionals In the firm had raised. Still, the suggestion had always received low reception due to the possibility and fear of cyber security.
But following the rise of the pandemic, the restriction on travel (which was highly consequential for international arbitration), and finally, the shutdown of physical hearings, the system and practitioners had no choice but to turn to virtual arbitration.
For a legal system that had never really had any laid down international rules to guide remote hearings, arbitration adapted quite strongly. From January 2020 to December 2021, about 71% of all arbitration cases adopted virtual arbitration either fully or partially. This landmark achievement on digitalization prompted the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to quickly set up a guideline on Virtual Arbitration. From that time to date, Virtual Arbitration has become a key player in the system.
Since the successful implementation of Virtual arbitration, the bond between Digitalization and International Arbitration has only grown stronger. Currently, services such as video conferencing, cloud-based sharing, and e-disclosure have become central pieces in international arbitration. These services are believed to be the first of many technologly tools that would be of importance in helping the system become more seamless. Following a survey of respondents about the perception of the future use of remote hearings, the general opinion was that the trend should continue.
Digitalization has clearly come to stay and can only grow stronger as international arbitration experts are now looking for ways to even harness the benefits of artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence in International Arbitration
Just like in most fields and endeavors, Artificial intelligence (AI) is still a new area in technology, with its influence still in development and its implementation in the near future. However, for most arbitration practitioners, AI is nothing less than the savior of the system that is expected to reduce exuberant costs and increase efficiency in a way that has never been implemented.
The reason for this belief is justified as there are several ways in which AI can help foster significant speed and accurate rulings during hearings and to the issuing of the awards. This article will consider some of the significant areas that AI is expectedly believed to impact arbitration efficiency and success.
Areas Where AI Is Expected to Be Significant
Speech Recognition
Experts believe that one of the strongest uses of AI would be in speech recognition, with the system able to understand different languages and accents with about 99.9999% accuracy. With such a role, the system would help dispute parties save cost by rendering certain areas where experts would need to be paid obsolete. these areas include
Transcripts
With AI, disputing parties would not need to pay premium transcription services specialists who translate hearings to written forms. AI would be able to do this job as hearings are being carried out in real-time, with the additional advantage of identifying the speaker voices.
Interpretation
AI would also handle the duties of interpreters due to the system’s ability to understand all languages and accents, and as such, all parties, including arbitrators in a case, would be able to understand each other irrespective of language differences.
Speed of Issuing Awards
A bane in international arbitration is the slow process of arbitrators issuing awards. With AI, however, experts believe that AI will be able to draft standard sections of an award while learning and storing information to implement award issuing more effectively.
AI Arbitrator
This is the final stage of development for Artificial intelligence in International Arbitration, according to experts. The ability of AI to function and think logically as technological experts strongly champion human arbitrators. The belief is that AI will be taught with tons of hypotheses and previous cases and will also be a test run to make it think in the direction that a human arbitrator will think during a new case.
In fact, experts are of the opinion that AI, as it evolves, will be much more accurate with zero bias while handling cases.
Conclusion
Digitalization and International Arbitration is one of the most important areas in international arbitration, and for most people, a field whose importance must not be downplayed for any reason. As it stands, arbitration in 2021 is fully riding on the back of digitalization, and talks about Artificial intelligence in International Arbitration are also not uncommon.
However, as has been discussed in this article, digitalization is an essential part of arbitration and will continue to remain so. Artificial intelligence is also a real possibility, and the more users and practitioners prepare for it, the easier it will be on its ride for easy implementation.
Rattsakuten, an arbitration institution with some of the best digital arbitrators (who are of the opinion that AI would bring the efficiency so much desired in the system), is one place that clients and disputing parties can turn to when looking to cut down on expenses. The firm harnesses the opportunity embedded in digitalization to help clients get the best out of any case with low risks and costs. you can contact the firm management for more inquiries on the institution process.
About Rattsakuten
Rattsakuten is a leading law firm focused on Commercial Arbitration and Dispute Resolution. Based in Sweden, Rattsakuten handles dispute resolution and Arbitration matters before the SCC (Swedish Chamber of Commerce), ICC, HKIAC, and several other Arbitration tribunals.