Ten Years Later: Why the ‘Renaissance of Expedited Arbitration’ Should Be the ‘Emergency Arbitration’ of 2020

While the last decade will be remembered for the splash created by the invention of Emergency Arbitration and its subsequent wide adoption across institutional rules, this article proposes that the next decade should be known for the Renaissance of Expedited Arbitration. There is little doubt that Emergency Arbitration responded to certain user needs and sought to fill a void in international arbitration related to interim relief ordered by an arbitrator prior to the constitution of the tribunal. However, the label Emergency Arbitration ‘over-promised’ by suggesting to some users that under this innovation they could achieve a quick final resolution of their dispute. Now that the ability for parties to obtain pre-tribunal-constitution interim relief is settled, the arbitral community must respond to the user’s desire to obtain swifter final resolution. This article proposes that the best way to achieve that end is through the expansion of the parameters associated with the applicability of the ‘expedited track’ in arbitral rules. By expanding the default application of these rules, users would have the ability to obtain swifter final resolution of more disputes while retaining safeguards in situations where the arbitral tribunal found that the expedited track would move ‘too fast’ for the dispute at hand. Expedited Arbitration, Emergency Arbitration, Interim Relief, hundred-Day Arbitration, Enforceability, ICC Commission Report Emergency Arbitrator Proceedings, Interim Order, Efficiency, Time, Cost