Evaluation of Evidence and Standard of Proof in International Commercial Arbitrations

Without entering into the subject of standard of proof, National rules and statutes around the international commercial arbitrations prescribe the principle of freedom to determine the value of affirmative evidence and proof of facts for arbitral tribunals. The practice of arbitral tribunals has previously stemmed from intellectual backgrounds of its members and their respective legal systems. Due to the role of common law and civil law lawyers in establishment of arbitration practices and under their influences, two different criteria have been applied in standards of proof. In unification process of practices in arbitrations, the arbitral tribunals had attempted to apply a unique standard of proof and evaluation of evidence. Despite of evaluation of evidence, which has three psychological, logical, and legal aspect, the standard of proof is part of judicial epistemology and it has merely psychological and logical aspect and does not have legal element. It seems that to reach a definite standard of proof is difficult, but conviction threshold definitely has recognizable criteria. In this research, while we examine currently used standards of proof in international commercial arbitrations and analyzing the epistemological aspect to evaluate evidence, we try to determine a reasonable standard to evaluate evidence and examine how to apply and implement it in evaluation of evidence.