Appointment of Experts and Neutrals

Where the parties have agreed to use the ICC International Centre for ADR (“the Centre”) as appointing authority or where the Centre is otherwise satisfied that there is a sufficient basis for acting as appointing authority, the Centre will appoint an expert or a neutral pursuant to the ICC Rules for the Appointment of Experts and Neutrals.

The appointment shall be binding on the parties. An expert appointed may be a physical person or a legal person, such as a company or a partnership.

Under the Rules, the Centre’s role is limited to the process of appointing the expert or neutral. The Centre does not administer the expert proceedings. Accordingly, the parties are invited to agree directly with the appointed expert or neutral on the scope of the mission and fees.

A party may file a written objection with the Centre asserting that the expert or neutral does not have: the necessary attributes; is not fulfilling the expert’s or neutral’s functions; or is not independent or impartial. Subsequently, the Centre may replace the expert or neutral after having considered the observations of the expert or neutral and the other party or parties.

Appointment

When disputes arise, parties might wish to have an expert appointed by ICC to decide on a particular issue. For example, on the valuation of shares or the quality control of a manufactured good. Or they might have agreed on a dispute resolution procedure for which they need a neutral to act as mediator, but cannot agree on the person to fulfil this role. An appointment by the Centre is binding on the parties. The Centre’s involvement ends upon completion of the appointment process. It does not extend to the administration of the ensuing expert proceedings, which is the subject of a separate set of rules.