THE USE AND PROMOTION OF TECHNOLOGY IN INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION PROCEEDINGS:
BRIEF OVERVIEW IN EMERGING COUNTRIES

As information technologies have proliferated through emerging economies, they have facilitated the use of international arbitration as a dispute resolution mechanism. This article highlights the particular technologies which are being used in emerging economies and the ways in which they influence parties’ experiences with international arbitration. The article observes that firms in emerging economies have taken advantage of information technology, particularly in its commercial iterations, to virtually interact with one another and with their documents. This has improved the accessibility of arbitration by reducing costs and increasing efficiencies.

As internet connectivity and the use of other forms of information technology have expanded, it became only a matter of time before they began to influence the practice of dispute resolution. Today, technologies like mobile, email and electronic file management systems have brought efficiency and cost reductions to the interactions between parties, counsels, arbitrators, experts, witnesses and the other actors in international arbitration. Parties in emerging economies have begun to successfully harness some elements of this information technology to overcome the complex logistics which are involved in an international arbitration.

Over the last 20 years international arbitration is a form of dispute resolution that has been particularly dependent on interconnectivity. A typical dispute may not only involve parties from two different countries, but also counsel based in a third country, and an arbitral tribunal whose members are each based in different parts of the world. While the technology is not uniformly spread across countries, parties and their counsel have learnt how to adapt technologies that were made for mass communication in their arbitration cases.

Apr-Jun 2015 issue

ICC International Court of Arbitration