W Ltd v M SDN BHD

Huw Davies QC and Siddharth Dhar (instructed by Clyde & Co LLP) for the Claimant Luke Parsons QC and Caroline Pounds (instructed by Fenwick Elliot LLP) for the Defendant Hearing date: 16 December 2015 ____________________

But there is a tension between all of this and General Standard (2)(d) when an affiliate of a party is a client of the arbitrator's firm, because in that situation General Standard (2)(d) and Paragraph 1.4 of the Non-Waivable Red List (with the definition of affiliate) appear to take a different approach to that taken by General Standard (6)(a).

The General Standards start with a statement of General Principle that "Every arbitrator shall be impartial and independent of the parties at the time of accepting an appointment to serve and shall remain so until the final award has been rendered or the proceedings have otherwise finally terminated."

"(a) An arbitrator shall decline to accept an appointment or, if the arbitration has already been commenced, refuse to continue to act as an arbitrator, if he or she has any doubt as to his or her ability to be impartial or independent.

(b) The same principle applies if facts or circumstances exist, or have arisen since the appointment, which, from the point of view of a reasonable third person having knowledge of the relevant facts and circumstances, would give rise to justifiable doubts as to the arbitrator's impartiality or independence, unless the parties have accepted the arbitrator in accordance with the requirements set out in General Standard 4.