The Lawyer in the Context of Arbitration

Summary The legal profession, as one of the traditional legal professions, and arbitration, as one of the basic methods of out-of-court dispute resolution, are fundamentally linked in practice, and the lawyer plays a central role in arbitration. Both the practice of advocacy and arbitration are regulated at various levels by a number of legal, but generally non-binding regulations, the so-called soft law , which set out the conditions for the practice of advocacy and arbitration, respectively, and which, in the international context, seek to achieve a certain convergence of different legal systems, or to create generally acceptable standards. In practice, the lawyer has become one of the most important parts of the arbitration process – from awareness-raising activities in the field of outof-court dispute resolution, through the conclusion of arbitration agreements, the performance of the arbitrator’s function, to the representation of parties both in arbitration proceedings and in proceedings before the general court, for example, in the annulment of an arbitral award. His erudition and the way he carries out his advocacy and arbitration activities can significantly influence the image of arbitration and its general acceptability as an out-of-court dispute resolution method. The article discusses the various roles of the advocate in the context of arbitration, their interaction, highlights the problematic aspects associated with certain roles and the reasons why the advocate has become such an important and indispensable element in the practice of (especially international) arbitration.