Research On The Appointment Of The Secretary Of The Chinese And Foreign Arbitral Tribunals

In international arbitration,arbitral tribunals tend to accept third-party assistance in order to relieve their burden of work,improve the efficiency and save the costs of the arbitral proceedings,especially when cases involve complicated factors and extensive documents.The use of tribunal secretaries is a form of assistance,and case managers at Chinese arbitration institutions also play a similar role.Notably,the appointment and scope of work of the tribunal secretaries are usually ambiguous in practice,which might also give rise to concerns regarding the influence on the final decisions caused by the tribunal secretaries.The primary reason for this ambiguity is that arbitration institutions have separate attitudes.As a result,in the cases concerning the defective use of tribunal secretaries,the challenging party found it difficult to rely on specific rules with solid evidence to prove its arguments.In light of the above,this paper will firstly summarize the main methods adopted by international and Chinese arbitration institutions and subsequently turn to the case study of challenges to the use of the tribunal secretaries.Based on this,this paper will draw a conclusion on the possible consequences of the improper use of tribunal secretaries.Considering that a uniform standard followed by all arbitration institutions does not correspond to reality,the last part will explore to define the baselines for the use of tribunal secretaries.Specifically,by reference to advanced practice in international arbitration,this paper will make additional suggestions on improving the use of case managers and introducing tribunal secretaries into ad hoc arbitration in China.