第三方资助国际仲裁中的仲裁员利益冲突--《IBA指引(2014)》背景下的冲突审查和披露模式

Arbitrator Conflicts of Interest in Third-party Funding of International Arbitration: Conflicts Check and Disclosure Modality in the Context of the 2014 IBA Guidelines

第三方资助仲裁近些年来引发了学术界井喷式的关注,而其所引发的仲裁员利益冲突成为当下最富有争议的问题之一。2018年由国际商事仲裁理事会和伦敦玛丽女王大学联合发布的《国际仲裁第三方资助报告》就第三方资助的概念、第三方资助者强制性披露规制、披露模式、未知利益冲突等相关问题做出了回应。尽管如此,在强制性披露之后,第三方资助者应当被视为被资助方还是被资助方的关联方,这一直接关系到仲裁员是否应该回避的问题并未得到解决。此外,就进一步合理查询以及披露存在引发利益冲突的事实或情形的义务,如何在仲裁员和当事人间进行合理分配的问题上并未得到解答。本文则主要针对前述两个问题基于《国际律协国际仲裁利益冲突指引》(2014年版)对上述问题进行分析并对此提出建议。

Recent years have seen an eruption of academic interest in third-party funding of international arbitration, and the issue with regard to arbitrator conflicts of interest raised by third-party funding is one of the most current and controversial issues. The Report of the ICCA-Queen Mary Task Force on Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration has responded to the issues regarding the definition of third-party funding, mandatory disclosure of a third-party funder, disclosure modality, unknown conflicts of interest and so forth. Nonetheless, the question whether a thirdparty funder shall be considered as a party to arbitration or an affiliate of the party after the mandatory disclosure, which is concerned with whether an arbitrator should be challenged, is not resolved yet. In addition, the questions regarding how to proportion the duty to make further disclosure of the facts or circumstances giving to potential conflicts of interest between the arbitrator and the disputing party and their reasonable enquire duty have not been clarified either. This article tries to examine these two questions based upon the 2014 IBA Guidelines on Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration, and concludes with some suggestions to them.