How can you define whether an arbitration institution is credible or not? Arbitral awards that result from well-administered arbitrations will give the answer. The quality or the credibility of an arbitral award is the dominant factor that users consider when choosing among different dispute resolution mechanisms and endorsing arbitration by word of mouth.
Poor quality arbitral awards, which may lack elaboration of the facts or convincing reasoning, will fail user expectations of arbitration and even hinder the development of the arbitration industry at large. It is, therefore, the essence of arbitrators’ work and arbitration institutions’ administration to ensure the credibility of arbitral awards.
The guarantee of credibility is arbitrators’ consciousness of the importance of the matters at hand. An arbitral award is nothing less than a final word to an individual, a company or an entity. It is a judgment telling right from wrong. Parties will move onto different paths from the original legal relationship, and the nature of finality demands a clear cut of the cake.
Sun Yu is a senior case manager of Beijing Arbitration Commission/Beijing International Arbitration Center (BAC/BIAC). BAC/BIAC’s senior manager, Terence Xu, also contributed to the article
