Civil Liability of Arbitrators in Virtual Arbitration in Cyberspace

Abstract

Reza Shahidi Sadeghi, Seyed Mohammad Asadinejad and Seyedeh Maryam Asadinejad

Arbitration is one of the most common methods of peaceful dispute resolution in domestic and international disputes out of state courts. Today, the issue of international commercial arbitration has become more important among businessmen due to the speed of processing, and saving the costs imposed on the parties to resolve disputes, and therefore, the access of global communities to new communication technologies has caused the issue of arbitration to be brought up and become relevant in the virtual global space. Therefore, the arbitrator accepts duties according to the arbitration agreement concluded between the parties, which in case of non-fulfillment of the aforementioned contractual obligations and duties, and as a result, causing both material and moral damage, and establishing the relationship of causation, will result in his civil liability. In general, the legal system of common law has accepted the principle of immunity (exemption) from liability for international arbitrators, and the principle of civil liability of arbitrators has been accepted in the legal systems of written law and the arbitration system of Iran. Now, the question that arises in my mind is, what effects and rulings does the civil liability of the arbitrator in virtual arbitrations bring? In response, it should be said that due to the lack of approval of independent, clear, comprehensive, and consistent laws and regulations regarding the civil liability of the arbitrator in the virtual arbitration in cyberspace in the domestic and international spheres, and that virtual arbitration has the same effects as traditional arbitration in terms of substance and they are distinguished from each other only in formal issues and formalities governing the proceedings, it seems that the issue of civil liability of the arbitrator in traditional and virtual arbitrations in terms of effects and rulings do not differ much from each other.

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