ICC's longstanding experience in administering international arbitrations has led parties to seek its assistance in selecting arbitrators for cases not conducted under the ICC Rules of Arbitration. Since 1982, ICC has had rules setting out a procedure for the appointment, challenge and replacement of arbitrators when it is designated as the appointing authority in arbitrations conducted under the Rules of Arbitration of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Given that there are times when ICC is requested to act as appointing authority and decide on challenges of arbitrators in ad hoc cases not conducted under the UNCITRAL rules, ICC has revised its existing rules entitled ICC as Appointing Authority under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules so as to broaden their scope and reflect developments that have occurred since their adoption some twenty years ago.

For this purpose, the ICC International Court of Arbitration, which administered the former rules, set up an ad hoc working group, whose proposals were discussed within the ICC Commission on Arbitration and by ICC national committees. The resulting text, entitled Rules of ICC as Appointing Authority in UNCITRAL and Other Ad Hoc Arbitration Proceedings, was adopted by the Executive Board of ICC in Quebec City in September 2003.

The new rules seek to introduce greater clarity into ICC's activity as appointing authority and to unify the treatment of requests. The ICC International Court of Arbitration will be responsible for handling all requests, irrespective of the authority within ICC that is requested to act as appointing authority.

When acting as appointing authority under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, the ICC International Court of Arbitration will in general continue to use the list-procedure referred to in those rules. However, should the list-procedure prove to be inappropriate in a particular case, the ICC Court may proceed otherwise.

In both UNCITRAL and other ad hoc proceedings, in addition to making appointments, the ICC International Court of Arbitration may be given other powers, including the power to decide upon challenges of arbitrators, whether or not appointed by ICC.

The new rules, in force as of 1 January 2004, are reproduced [here].<RULE_0023> They provide a transparent and cost-effective procedure enabling parties to benefit from ICC's expertise and experience in ad hoc arbitration.