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Faculté de droit, sciences 61 Gray's Inn Road
économiques et gestion London
La Roche sur Yon WC1X 8TL
L'INDEPENDANCE ET L'IMPARTIALITE DES
ARBITRES
INTERNATIONAUX
Présenté par :
Melle Julie Boyeldieu
Mémoire préparé sous la direction de : M.
Gérard Chabot et
M. Derek Wilson
J. BOYELDIEU Page 2
L'indépendance et l'impartialité des arbitres
internationaux
Version Française
Les mots suivis d'une astérisque (*) renvoient au
Glossaire
TUTEUR DE STAGE: M. Manoj Choudhury,
Chef de Cabinet, cabinet d'avocats «Farringdons,
Solicitors»*
M. Manoj Choudhury est un Barrister*, membre du barreau de
Lincoln's Inn à Londres. Il a pratiqué en tant qu'avocat à
la High Court de Calcutta pendant plus de 20 ans et au barreau anglais pendant
2 ans. Par ailleurs, il a séjourné 9 ans à Hambourg dont 5
ans en tant qu'assistant juridique en droit maritime et en droit des transports
maritimes, à la fois en droit allemand et anglais. En outre, M.
Choudhury est membre du Panel des arbitres du Conseil indien de l'arbitrage
(Indian Council of Arbitration).
Date de stage : 1er avril 2011 au 30
septembre 2011.
Professeurs référents: M.
Gérard Chabot
Maître de conférences à l'Université
de Nantes Membre de l'institut de recherche en droit privé
M. Derek Wilson
Solicitor (Ecosse / R.U), LLB Hons
Maître de conférences à l'Université
de Nantes
En charge des programmes d'échanges internationaux de
l'Université de Nantes avec les Etats Unis.
Soutenance:
Date: Lundi 17 octobre 2011
Lieu: Université de Nantes, La Roche sur Yon
Heure : 15H15
L'indépendance et l'impartialité des arbitres
internationaux
RESUME DU MEMOIRE :
RESUME EN ANGLAIS
According to Albert Einstein, «without creative
personalities able to think and judge independently, the upward development of
society is as unthinkable as the development of the individual without the
nourishing foil of the community...»1
If the development of the society depends on the
independence, this necessity will apply to the judicial power in a society.
Factually, the independence and the impartiality of the justice is a widely
accepted principle in most of legal systems, at the national or international
level, notably via the right to a fair trial.
Originally meant to apply to the courts, the right to a
fair trial has been extended to alternative dispute resolution methods,
particularly to arbitration. Arbitration is a non-judicial process to settle a
dispute by appointing a third person or more who will judge on the matter. This
dispute resolution method usually comes from a contract established by the
parties which will mention the applicable law and the different provisions
organising the arbitral process.
As a private justice, arbitration is particularly
appreciated because of the autonomy it confers to the parties and the
adaptability to each situation whatever the legal system involved. For this
reason, the arbitration is omnipresent nowadays for disputes arising out of
international commercial transactions, on which this study will be
focused.
The parties of an arbitral process have the possibility to
choose which law to apply to their arbitration, and the result will be either a
national law or rules coming from an international arbitral institution. Due to
the multiplicity of such possible applicable law, it is necessary to define a
framework for the study. Because of their complementarity and their
2 A. EINSTEIN, Mein Weltbild. Humanität - die
höchste Pflicht«, Hrsg. Carl Seelig, Erstdruck: Amsterdam, 1934,
Ullstein / West-Berlin, 1957.
J. BOYELDIEU Page 3
J. BOYELDIEU Page 4
L'indépendance et l'impartialité des arbitres
internationaux
historical influence to numerous legal systems in the
world, it seems interesting to focus the topic to the Common Law system
(centred principally on English legal system in this study), and the French
system as an example of Civil Law system. Because of the international
dimension of the subject, international institutions will also be taken into
account since they provide recognised and well-used instruments in the business
world.
This study will be a micro-comparison of independence and
impartiality of international arbitrators. It will be examined how these
principles are guaranteed and which impact have these principles on
international arbitration, regarding the arbitral function and the factual
implementation. This will lead us to look at the requirements for international
arbitrators, notably the duty of disclosure which was the subject of numerous
cases during the last decades. In this regard, the disclosure of a business
relationship appears to be problematic in certain circumstances that will be
investigated.
The arbitrators' duties are inexorably linked to the
arbitrator's liability, and the requirements of independence and impartiality
must not be neglected by international arbitrators because of the consequences
it can have on their work.
Besides, it will be addressed the issue of corruption of
arbitrators which unfortunately spoils the good picture of international
arbitration. As a private justice, it can become easy to bribe an arbitrator,
even more because the remuneration is set by the parties. As it will be
ascertain, there is an urgent need to contend this problem in order to protect
the confidence of the international trade actors in this dispute resolution
method.
To conclude, the independence and impartiality of
arbitrators are qualities which have an influence on the quality of the
arbitration itself. As the adage says, «an arbitration is no better than
arbitrators».
L'indépendance et l'impartialité des arbitres
internationaux
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