Henry Forbes Smith KC recently participated in a panel discussion on “Decision-Making and Biases” at the ICCA biannual conference, held in Hong Kong from 5-8 May 2024.
Henry discussed the right to impartiality, contrasting a reasonable decision with an impartial decision. He suggested that tribunals are not impartial because they are independent and that the right to impartiality should not depend on the independence of the tribunal. Henry also suggested that tribunals should provide reasons explaining why their decisions are not only reasonable, but also impartial. The Kluwer arbitration blog of the conference summarised Henry’s contribution as “advocating for rigorous reasoning as a tool to uphold impartiality, highlighting how it can reveal and counteract biases and errors, thereby ensuring transparency”.
Henry’s related paper will be published as part of the ICCA Congress series.