Can third party funding deliver justice in international commercial arbitration?

Abstract

Third party funding arrives at international commercial arbitration without clear guidelines. The recognition and acceptance of its legality is hampered by the omissions of all stakeholders' rights involved in international commercial arbitration. In balancing the funder’s contractual rights to gather information under the third party funding agreement and stakeholders' rights to know, the current research examined how non-disclosure of the third party funding agreement would prevent the arbitrators from fulfilling procedural justice required for the integrity of arbitration on their part and impede the opposing party’s right to know during the proceedings. The research highlights the issues from the delivery of procedural and substantive justice as well as suggesting legal and jurisprudential grounds in third party funding governance. It also points out that all issues examined will ultimately contribute to the failure in delivering justice in international commercial arbitration if third party funding is left to self-governance.