Arbitration in Autumn

Often invoked as a metaphor for decline and decay, autumn also carries a sense of robust maturity bringing fruitful harvest and new beginnings. The season’s double symbolism evokes rival visions of arbitration today. Some observers see a golden age of cheap and cheerful proceedings as replaced by a costly complexity that fails arbitration’s promise of coherent and efficient dispute resolution. On closer scrutiny, however, arbitration reveals itself as having arrived at its autumn not in the sense of decay, but rather with vital maturity. Productive exchanges among the various stakeholders in the process serve to refine the counterpoise among accuracy, fairness and efficiency. Although any forecast remains tentative, most signs suggest that arbitration will continue to play a key role in promoting sound economic cooperation. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, close bosom-friend of the maturing sun, conspiring with him to load and bless, with fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run. John Keats, Ode to Autumn (1819) 1