Joinder and intervention of additional parties in international commercial arbitration

Abstract

One of the major challenges that international arbitration has faced in the last decades is the regulation of multiparty arbitrations, which involve a confrontation between more than two parties with opposing interests. In this context, joinder and intervention deals with the need, in terms of justice and efficiency, to bring an additional party into the proceedings when the arbitration may already be in progress. However, the main characteristic of arbitration is its consensual nature. For this reason, mechanisms for joinder or intervention present considerable difficulties related to the principle of party autonomy, the right to equally participate in the nomination of the arbitrators and the protection of privacy and confidentiality in arbitration proceedings. Apart from dealing with these difficulties, the author discusses in this article the latest joinder provisions contained in leading arbitral rules.