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Brooks W. Daly, Arbitrator Independence in State-State and Investor-State Arbitration : Recent Developments
Brooks W. Daly, Arbitrator Independence in State-State and Investor-State Arbitration : Recent Developments
Date：2023-07-03
On June 2, 2023, renowned international arbitrator Brooks W. Daly gave a captivating lecture on the impartiality of arbitrators in State-State arbitration. Daly is a former Deputy Secretary-General and Principal Legal Counsel at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), where he served for 20 years until December 2022.
The lecture focused on two pivotal cases: the Alabama Claims Arbitration (United States v. United Kingdom, 1871) and the Croatia/Slovenia dispute. Daly emphasized the importance of independent arbitrators through a thorough examination of the issues in these cases.
Daly began his lecture by illuminating the circumstances surrounding the Alabama Claims Arbitration, which helped to lead to the formation of the PCA at the 1899 Hague Peace Conference and the subsequent 1899 Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes. He then highlighted a key policy within the PCA: the provision for parties to challenge an arbitrator's impartiality within 30 days if any appearance of bias arises.
Daly also guided the audience through the Croatia/Slovenia case, in which arbitrator Mr. Sekolec was alleged to have had a phone conversation with a member of the Slovenian government. A key issue in this case was whether this conversation constituted a material breach of the Arbitration Agreement between the two parties. Daly also considered whether party-appointed arbitrators could serve as ad hoc judges of the International Court of Justice.
The lecture focused on two pivotal cases: the Alabama Claims Arbitration (United States v. United Kingdom, 1871) and the Croatia/Slovenia dispute. Daly emphasized the importance of independent arbitrators through a thorough examination of the issues in these cases.
Daly began his lecture by illuminating the circumstances surrounding the Alabama Claims Arbitration, which helped to lead to the formation of the PCA at the 1899 Hague Peace Conference and the subsequent 1899 Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes. He then highlighted a key policy within the PCA: the provision for parties to challenge an arbitrator's impartiality within 30 days if any appearance of bias arises.
Daly also guided the audience through the Croatia/Slovenia case, in which arbitrator Mr. Sekolec was alleged to have had a phone conversation with a member of the Slovenian government. A key issue in this case was whether this conversation constituted a material breach of the Arbitration Agreement between the two parties. Daly also considered whether party-appointed arbitrators could serve as ad hoc judges of the International Court of Justice.
- Speaker Profile:
Brooks Daly is an independent arbitrator based in the Netherlands. Until December 2022, he was Deputy Secretary-General and Principal Legal Counsel at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), where he served for 20 years. In this role he oversaw the legal affairs of an intergovernmental organization with 122 member states and acted as registrar in complex arbitrations involving states, including Guyana v. Suriname, Bangladesh v. India, and Mauritius v. United Kingdom. Before joining the PCA, he worked as Counsel at the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris, and for law firms in Los Angeles and London. He was a member of the committee that drafted the 2012 PCA Arbitration Rules and is a co-author of A Guide to the PCA Arbitration Rules (Oxford University Press, 2014). Mr. Daly is regularly ranked as a leading arbitration practitioner by Who's Who Legal and in 2013 was appointed by the Netherlands as an Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau in recognition of his service to international arbitration. He is a member of the State Bar of California, Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University, and Visiting Professor at the Geneva LL.M. in International Dispute Settlement (MIDS).
To learn more about the event, please check out: https://www.law.pku.edu.cn/xwzx/xwdt/150641.htm