We are proud to share that Alexandru Stănescu, Partner at Lexters, together with Ionut Rus, have co-authored an article published in The American Review of International Arbitration at Columbia Law School. In this article, they tackle one of the most controversial issues in international arbitration today: third-party funding (TPF) and the need to balance transparency with confidentiality.
Third-party funding has long been a topic of particular interest and controversy in international arbitration proceedings, not in the least because it has generated issues pertaining to the transparency of arbitration proceedings and conflict of interest. Litigation and arbitration funding markets are growing exponentially, and national regulators and international arbitral institutions have only recently started to implement rules that specifically target the disclosure obligations around the involvement of third-party funders aimed at enhancing transparency. But the corrective steps in this sense have been piecemeal, disharmonious, and insufficient. It is for this reason that a governance-based, inter-institutional solution to disclosure obligations is needed. This article examines the main causes of potential conflict of interest and suggests a potential approach to conflict checking. The solution relies on the use of advanced technological solutions like shared databases, blockchain technology, smart contracts, and zero-proof knowledge concepts. Implementing the solution would allow the streamlining of disclosure, protect the integrity of the proceedings, and safeguard confidentiality in the field of institutional, commercial, and investment arbitration. The proposed solution does not tackle ad-hoc arbitration.
The Article was published in the American Review of International Arbitration (ARIA), vol. 34, no. 3.
You can read the full article here:
