Tipping the balance – diversity and inclusion in international arbitration

Abstract

Since publishing ‘Getting a Better Balance on International Arbitration Tribunals’ in Arbitration International Volume 28, Issue 4 in 2012 and ‘Is the Balance Getting Better? An Update on the Issue of Gender Diversity in International Arbitration’ in Arbitration International Volume 31, Issue 3 in 2015, the author has witnessed an increase both in women’s visibility in international arbitration and in general awareness of this issue. There has been a significant change in attitudes in a short period of time. However, translating the change in attitudes to a meaningful change in the number of appointments to tribunals of women and other diverse candidates, as well as more junior arbitrators, will only result from a change in the amount of information available to parties when they appoint arbitrators. The author attributes the lack of diversity in this field to the issue of information asymmetry and the problem of the ‘solicited feedback loop’ and believes that increased transparency and greater access to information is the only way to secure significant change.