Arbitral tribunal

An arbitral tribunal is a panel of adjudicators convened to resolve a dispute through arbitration, made up of a single arbitrator or, more often, an odd number of arbitrators chosen to avoid a deadlocked vote, usually professionals experienced in law and in dispute-resolution methods such as mediation. The parties to a dispute generally have freedom to choose the tribunal's composition and size, and where they reach no agreement the arbitration law of the relevant jurisdiction supplies default rules, some of which add an extra chairperson automatically if the chosen number of arbitrators is even. Arbitration proceeds either ad hoc, with the parties appointing arbitrators directly, or through an institution such as the ICC, the LCIA, or ICSID, which removes the need for court involvement in disputes over appointment but tends to be more formal, more expensive, and slower than an ad hoc proceeding.