Abstract
This article highlights a curious lack of diversity within the proliferating discourse about the lack of diversity in international arbitration. There is hardly any awareness or at least sustained discussion about the limited diversity of professional backgrounds, and more specifically, the dominance nowadays of those with practicing lawyer positions or primary careers across the key groups and publication outlets for international arbitration. Yet this encroachment of lawyers was still being contested in the 1990s, as being linked to burgeoning costs and delays, and such “formalisation” has been re-emerging in recent years. Diversifying the world of international arbitration to involve more non-lawyers, including academics, could promote various other objectives, too, as outlined in Part I. This article, therefore, empirically analyses how lawyers have come to dominate key nodes of influence across international commercial arbitration and the overlapping, more controversial field of investor-state arbitration. Part II looks at key general associations or organizations promoting international arbitration, including their leadership and presenters at symposiums. Part III focuses on various arbitration centres globally, which actually administer cases. Part IV examines contributions to some key arbitration journals, an influential book series, and a widely-read Blog. The conclusion reiterates that restoring more non-lawyers in the world of international arbitration should help not only to reduce formalisation and inefficiencies in international arbitration, but also have various other salutary effects, including potentially improving gender diversity.
Recommended Citation
Luke Nottage, Nobumichi Teramura, and James Tanna,
Lawyers and Non-Lawyers in International Arbitration: Discovering Diminishing Diversity,
47 Loy. L.A. Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 139
(2024).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/ilr/vol47/iss2/2
