The new 2024 IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration were the subject of the Lunch DIScussions on 16 May 2024 - a topical subject, which also perfectly followed the DIS Spring Conference 2024 in Hamburg on the topic "Trust is good, control is better? Protecting the procedural integrity of arbitration proceedings".
The panel consisted of Alice Fremuth-Wolf (Head for Austria & CEE at Nivalion and former Secretary General of VIAC), Jan Heiner Nedden (Hanefeld) and Chun-Kyung Paulus Suh (Deputy Secretary General and Head of Case Management at the DIS) and was moderated by Matthias Schlingmann (CMS Hasche Sigle). Alice Fremuth-Wolf and Jan Heiner Nedden were members of the IBA Task Force for the 2024 revision of the IBA Guidelines.
The panel discussed not only the innovations in the IBA Guidelines, but also what role they play in the practice of DIS, VIAC and ICC.
The discussion focused on changes to the IBA Guidelines in the area of third-party funding (General Standards 6 and 7), on the background of which Alice Fremuth-Wolf reported as a member of the corresponding subgroup of the Task Force, as well as changes in the area of experts (Orange List and Green List), on which Jan-Heiner Nedden reported as head of the corresponding subgroup. The panel also discussed further changes to the Orange List, which concern, for example, situations in which an arbitrator and a party representative or two or more arbitrators are simultaneously serving together as arbitrators in another proceeding. Finally, based on the clarification in General Standard 3(g) of the IBA Guidelines that an arbitrator's failure to disclose relevant facts or circumstances does not necessarily mean that a conflict of interest exits, or that a disqualification should ensue, the panel discussed whether arbitrators should follow the rules "when in doubt, disclose".
In conclusion, the speakers agreed that the new version of the IBA Guidelines has brought relatively few but important changes, which in particular close some previously existing gaps of practical relevance.
Karsten Grillitsch