International arbitrators as equity judges

Abstract

The powers of international arbitrators in proprietary matters and in practice therefore especially in asset backed international financing schemes affects third parties and can therefore hardly be explained any longer as deriving from the arbitration clause and party autonomy. This article, deals with this issue of powers of international (financial) arbitrators and find that they may best be compared to those of equity judges in common law countries. These powers are founded in the transnational commercial an financial legal order ityself, merely activated by the arbitration clause but are not founded therein. The article deals with these powers especially within the context of the further development by these arbitrators of the modern lex mercatoria, its different sources of law and their hierarchy covering in particularr the formulation of more dynamic contractual and movable property structures in transnational professional dealings.