Legal Status of an Emergency Arbitrator

Given the fact that the emergency arbitrator mechanism was introduced after most national arbitration laws and international conventions were drafted, the legal status of an emergency arbitrator remains controversial and unsolved. It seems that the idea of the emergency arbitrator mechanism runs ahead of its regulatory environment. The status of an emergency arbitrator is crucial to determine the enforceability of the issued interim measures. This chapter aims to provide a theoretical background for the legal status of an emergency arbitrator. It starts with the legal status of an arbitrator, along with different legal theories, and then addresses the question that whether an emergency arbitrator can be treated as a fully-fledged arbitrator.