Since arbitrator's impartiality and independence constitutes the bedrock of international
arbitration more and more recent arbitral awards have been annulled or vacated on the grounds
of lack of arbitrator's impartiality. This work investigates whether a common international
public policy core exists with regard to the concepts of impartiality and independence of
arbitrators in international commercial arbitration. The book addresses the different
constellations of arbitrator bias as considered by the courts of various jurisdictions
especially France England Switzerland Greece and Germany. By introducing the 'justifiable
doubts' to an arbitrator's impartiality criterion and analyzing the above-mentioned national
case law the book categorizes instances that constitute lack of impartiality with reference to
and interpretation of the IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration
2014. The work examines and systematizes how arbitrator impartiality can be contested at
different stages of procedure: upon constitution of the arbitral tribunal during arbitration
proceedings as well as after the rendering of the award at annulment recognition or
enforcement stage while providing answers to the following questions: what must an arbitrator
disclose should an arbitrator investigate a possible fact or circumstance that may affect her
impartiality and to what extent what is the relevance of the fact affecting arbitrator
impartiality being obvious well-known or easily accessible by the parties under which
preconditions could a party waive its right to contest lack of impartiality-implicitly or
expressly. This study focuses specifically on the institution of waiver and analyses how it
prevents a party from contesting arbitrator impartiality at the next procedural stage should
it fail to follow the specific procedures and preconditions - an issue that is unexamined in
the literature to date.
