Arbitration And Virtual Hearings

Introduction

At the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, the world came to a halt, and it had to adjust its day-to-day needs to the present time. Governments adopted dramatic precautions to prevent the transmission of COVID-19: schools were closed, businesses were shut down, curfews were declared, and travel restrictions were adopted. One thing all these measures had in common was that they created greater challenges to holding in-person meetings. This undeniably impacted in-person court and arbitration hearings. To overcome this problem, courts and arbitral institutions started to utilize technology to conduct remote hearings via videoconferencing.

Bearing in mind that arbitration commences with the consent of the parties, the arbitration community began debating what would happen when an arbitrator decided to conduct a virtual hearing despite an objection raised by either of the parties, under the framework of due process and the right to a fair trial, a fundamental