International arbitration: a hybrid future?

• COVID-19 and its current influence on international arbitration.
• COVID-19 and the future of international arbitration: the hybrid hearing?

The impact of the pandemic on litigation in the civil and criminal courts in England and Wales has been considerable: those courts are geared for face-to-face hearings. That is especially so in the case of criminal trials before a jury. The need for those courts to switch to remote hearings represents a major change. The effect of coronavirus on international arbitration is likely to have less impact: international arbitration is already familiar with remote hearings in one form or another.

The author’s experience as counsel and arbitrator in the conduct of an international arbitration—whether institutional or ad hoc—is that various procedures are already used which may be labelled ‘remote’.

With parties in different countries and in different time zones the procedure at an arbitration is likely to involve matters such as:

• the use of telephone conferences: for