As the number of disputes continues to increase and the pool of arbitrators has continued to expand, the role of arbitrators has evolved.
No longer are arbitrators a select pool of “grand old men” or a “gentlemen’s club” made up of
those individuals with a close connection to a particular area of laws, a relationship to the parties and perhaps with preexisting knowledge of a dispute whose “independence” was founded upon the notion of a personal sense of duty and honor.
Indeed the intimacy and limited size that are typical prerequisites for informal social controls in the international arbitration community has given way to a host of other pressures brought by its growth and expansion.
Today, international commercial arbitrators have transformed themselves into a group of technocrats who are experts in arbitration procedure and theory.