Legal Responsibilities Of An Arbitrator In Internaltional Commercial Arbitrations

An Arbitrator's authority is derived from law and his jurisdiction is derived from or based on will of the parties. The arbitrator's authority is no broader than that defined by the parties and law defines some of his rights and duties. Not only national legislators set limits inside which an arbitrator must act but international customs, usages, conventions also play an important role. In a broad sense, the status of arbitrators encompasses the aspect of all their rights and duties throughout the arbitral proceedings. This extends to the arbitral hearings, the determination of law governing the substance of the dispute and the making of the award-all matters where arbitrators enjoy considerable powers. Arbitrators are empowered by the parties to decide their dispute. That judicial power is the principal characteristic of their role and enables arbitration to be distinguished from superficially similar concepts such as expert proceedings, conciliation and mediation. The fact that an arbitrator has the ad-judicatory power has given rise to the Jurisdictional theory. According to this theory, the State allows within its territory privately administered justice systems. This follows from the legal effect a State and its legal system attaches to an arbitration agreement and to an arbitral award. Consequently, arbitrators can be said to exercise a public function. There is another theory, which emphasizes that arbitration has a contractual character. It has its origin in and depends for its existence and continuity on the parties' agreement. The supporters of the this theory deny the primacy or control of the State in arbitration and argue that the very quintessence of an arbitration is that it is ' created by the will and consent of the parties.' Despite the numerous and varied theories existing vis-a-vis the status of arbitrators, some rights and obligations imposed on the arbitrators are more or less universally accepted. The sources, which contribute to the definition of the rights and obligations of arbitrators, include guidelines for arbitrators, the practice of arbitral institutions, certain provisions of arbitral institutions, as well as codes of ethics adopted by such institutions and by Bars and Bar Associations.This paper, applying analysis and compare methods by concluding the practice of arbitral institutions, certain provisions of national arbitration law and relative theory, emphatically analyzes rights and obligations imposed on the international commercial arbitrators, the legal relationship between arbitrators and the parties to the dispute, the civil liability of arbitrators and the criminal liability of arbitrators.In the end, considering the specific provisions in the Arbitration Law of PRC and some related laws and regulations, by comparing with other countries' civil and criminal liability legislation of arbitrator, this paper states defects to perfect of Chinese arbitrators' civil and criminal liability system, and also gives several propositions on how to establish civil liability system on arbitrators in China.