On The Accelerated Arbitration Procedure In International Commercial Arbitration

Parties of international commercial disputes often choose international commercial arbitration as a method of settling disputes based on the superiority of arbitration.Compared with the international civil and commercial litigation,international commercial arbitration has the characteristics of flexibility and autonomy,and it also has considerable advantages in the recognition and enforcement of the final award.However,with the development of the arbitration becoming more and more litigation,arbitration procedures become rigid and lengthy,and the costs of arbitration have also risen.Traditional arbitration procedures have become increasingly unable to meet the demands of parties involved in international commercial transactions to resolve disputes promptly,efficiently and at low cost.In order to solve the drawbacks of the arbitration proceedings,many special arbitration systems emerge,and expedited arbitration procedure is one of them.Different arbitration institutions have different expedited arbitration rules,which have different provisions in the conditions of applying for expedited arbitration procedures,the specific process of expedited arbitration,the award of expedited arbitration,and so on.However,the expedited arbitration procedures provided by these various rules have the same characteristic.Combining theory with practice,the issues reflected by these commonalities are the challenges that expedited arbitration meet with at this stage.By combing and analyzing,we can better grasp the essence of the expedited arbitration procedure and the characteristics of its each process.In terms of the conditions of application,expedited arbitration rules are generally characterized by openness and flexibility,making it possible for cases in various circumstances to be subject to expedited arbitration proceedings.As for the constitution of the arbitral tribunal,almost all expedited arbitration rules provide that the dispute should be resolved by a sole arbitrator.However,there are also expedited arbitration rules that retain the parties' right to apply expedited arbitration procedures but to choose three-person arbitrators as an arbitral tribunal.In terms of the specific process,expedited arbitration procedures has a remarkable distinction from ordinary arbitration procedures.There are differences on proceedings of submissions,time limits,hearings,final awards,arbitration fees etc.between the two procedures,which from the ordinary arbitration procedures constitute the significant features of expedited arbitration procedures.The characteristics of expedited arbitration procedures all reflect the nature of itself: acceleration.However,the nature comes at the cost of a number of restrictions to the ordinary arbitration procedures,which may result in the conflict between the contractual nature of the arbitration and due process and the simplicity of the procedure.This requires the arbitrator to actively coordinate the parties to reach new procedural agreements that are in line with the expedited arbitration proceedings and to make good use of the case pre-trial procedures.As for the summary procedures in China's international commercial arbitration,it is open,brief,and loose.This requires that,in terms of improvement,it is necessary to gradually increase the amount of disputes applicable to summary procedures,so that more and more cases can apply the procedure by default,and pay attention to the ability and qualification of a single arbitrator.Only an arbitrator with extensive arbitration experience and profound professional knowledge can be qualified as a sole arbitrator in an expedited arbitration.Finally,no matter what the expedited arbitration procedures will become in the future,we have to notice the fact that the ultimate aim of arbitration as a means of dispute settlement is not merely the speed or the less expensive arbitration costs,but the fairness of its award.Only by guaranteeing the fairness of the award will the expedited arbitration procedures continue to flourish.Otherwise,it will lose its meaning of existence.