NEWSLETTER-2020-metin

215 ARBITRATION LAW ICSID Sets New Ethical Standards for Adjudicators* Att. Ayca Bengü Köksal Introduction On May 1, 2020, International Centre for Settlement of Invest- ment Disputes (“ICSID”) and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (“UNCITRAL”) published the first draft of Code of Conduct for Adjudicators in Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) (“Code” or “Code of Conduct”). The draft Code addresses cer- tain policy issues in response to the criticism raised for adjudicators’ conduct, independence and impartiality as well as their availability. General Review The draft Code of Conduct consists of 12 articles. Each article is coupled with a commentary which explains the reasoning behind these provisions in detail and even propose some wordings in square brackets. Article 1 defines basic terms including adjudicators which means all arbitrators, members of international ad hoc , annulment or appeal committees, and judges on a permanent mechanism for the settlement of investor-state disputes. Article 2 determines the scope of application of the Code and sets out adjudicators’ obligations and duties such as; independence, impartiality, conflict of interest, bias, integrity, fairness, competence, availability, diligence, efficiency, and confidentiality. Ar- ticles 4 to 9 discuss these duties and responsibilities in further detail and try to ease the concerns raised by arbitration society with regards to adjudicators’ behaviors. Articles 10 and 11 burden the adjudicators with the duty to keep accurate and documented record of the time devoted to the procedure and their expenses. Finally, Article 12 ad- dresses the inevitable issue of enforcement of the Code of Conduct. * Article of June, 2020