A Comparative Survey on the International and Domestic Approaches towards Arbitration with Non-Responding Defendant

Arbitration is a contractual arrangement of dispute settlement. The core of arbitration as a mechanism is 'agreement' of the disputing parties. As opined by some scholars, the backbone of any procedure for dispute settlement, including arbitration, is cooperation of opposing parties. The state courts are empowered to enforce the parties' cooperation through conduct of default process in case of respondent non-participation. However, once arbitration is concerned, parties' cooperation is more important because the tribunal conduct the arbitration based on the powers conferred thereto by the parties. If one of the parties, specifically for the purpose of this article 'the respondent', decides to not participate in arbitration due to any reason, which is not ultimately considered as justified excuse, the arbitral tribunal would face with two important conflicting questions. 1) How to respect the respondent's right of due process. 2) How and to what extent the respondent's arbitrary decision not to participate affects the claimant's contractual right of access to justice. Both courts of recognition and enforcement and annulment review of a default arbitral award encounter with a number of requirements in their course of proceeding as well.