Page 102 - วารสารกฎหมาย ศาลอุทธรณ์คดีชํานัญพิเศษ

วารสารกฎหมาย ศาลอุทธรณ์คดีชำานัญพิเศษ

arbitrators are neutral, work quickly and cheap. After all, the real arbitration world is
beset with issues concerning partiality of arbitrators, tardy arbitrators, incompetence or

expensive arbitrators. The then Attorney-General of Singapore Sundaresh Menon
(now Chief Justice), once commented that high-costs in arbitration can be attributed to

parties’ preoccupation with big-name arbitrators and lawyers who are typically busy
37
thus unable to commit their time, leading to delay and increase in cost. Can AI solve
these problems? Supposed one day, dependable and untainted algorithms for AI in

arbitration are developed, might arbitration then indeed provide equal access to justice?
However, many questions will need to be answered such as whether AI will merely be

a tool and to what extent, as well as policy matters relating to its use and accountability.
Those taking the middle-ground will view machine-assisted arbitration or AI as

merely tools that help to increase efficiency, lowering costs, increasing the speed of
proceedings and possibly also address some of the current vexatious issues faced in the
arbitration world, such as reducing over-lawyering and complex discovery process.

In today’s ever-growing complexity of disputes that are likely to involve technical issues
such as engineering, construction or even technology, technically savvy or competent
arbitrators are required or AI could step in to provide a solution. Perhaps in small value

and industry-specific dispute resolution, AI can conduct automated adjudications,
for example, for travel insurance claims. The AI in analysing live data feeds from

airlines, airports and meteorological departments could verify information about flight
cancellations or postponements. Imagine a traveller with travel insurance is stranded
in an airport due to flight cancellation; he could use his smartphone’s application to

activate a claim against his insurer and the AI could rapidly process and verify the
information resulting in an instant credit of partial or full compensation according to

the insured’s entitlement for his immediate, emergency use. Not only that this is efficient
claims handling and dispute management, but it can also build good relations with
customers.

37 Sundaresh Menon, ‘International Arbitration: The Coming of a New Age for Asia (and Elsewhere)’
(XXIst ICCA, Singapore, 11 June 2012) <https://cdn.arbitration-icca.org/s3fs-public/document/media_document/
ags_opening_speech_icca_congress_2012.pdf> accessed 1 April 2021

100