Party-Appointed experts vs tribunal-appointed experts in international arbitration

The influence of common law and civil law systems has left international arbitration tribunals divided in their procedures for managing expert witness evidence. While arbitration tribunals based in Europe tend to allocate the tribunal primary responsibility for appointing and managing expert evidence, arbitration tribunals in common law jurisdictions readily allow parties to appoint their own expert witnesses.

This article covers the most salient points of the debate over issues of the efficiency, flexibility, and fairness of expert evidence in international arbitrations that this divergence in procedures has provoked. We consider the merits and disadvantages of relying on party-appointed experts and tribunal-appointed experts in arbitrations before discussing the novel approaches of Australian courts that have and continue to shape the management of expert witnesses in arbitration tribunals globally.