Arbitrato internazionale e nuove tecnologie

Arbitration, particularly in its international dimension, is characterized by a tendency to innovate which is coessential to its continuous pursuit of efficiency. The contractual nature of arbitration allows, on the basis of a simple implicit consent of the parties, a rapid alignment with technological development, due to the higher rate of freedom and informality that characterizes this dispute settlement mechanism when compared to national litigation This tendency towards embracing technological solutions is further amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic emergency, which is exerting a decisive and probably irreversible impact on our society, establishing a new normal which will be long-lasting and particularly evident in the domain of international arbitration. This contribution proposes an all-inclusive and dynamic taxonomy of the relationship between international arbitration and new technologies which consists of three layers: technology as an object of arbitration; technology as a tool serving arbitration in its traditional dimension and technology as an element capable of partial or total substitution of human decision in arbitration. These elements are of course susceptible of hybridization, but an essential distinction should always be maintained between the serving role of technology with respect to human activity and a much more delicate role of replacement of the human factor, which seems hardly substitutable in its synthetic and discrete discernment