NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Trond Hatland, Per Ole Svor, Henrik Fabian Torgrimsby and Anders Eide Røyneberg, Advokatfirmaet Thommessen AS
4. The Arbitral Tribunal 4.1 Limits on Selection
4.4 Challenge and Removal of Arbitrators In accordance with Section 14 of the Arbitration Act, an arbitrator may only be challenged if there are cir - cumstances that give rise to justifiable doubts about their impartiality or independence, or if they do not possess the qualifications agreed between the parties in the arbitration agreement. An arbitrator is obliged to disclose any circumstances likely to give rise to such justifiable doubts from the time when they are approached in respect of their possible appointment as an arbitrator. The same obli - gation will be in place throughout the arbitration pro - ceedings in that the arbitrator is always under a duty to convey such information to the parties. Unless the parties have agreed otherwise, a challenge against an arbitrator will state the factual reasons for the challenge and will be submitted in writing to the arbitral tribunal within 15 days after the party has become aware of both the appointment of the arbi - trator and the circumstances on which the challenge is based. Unless the challenged arbitrator voluntarily withdraws from their appointment or the other party agrees to the challenge, the arbitral tribunal will reach a decision on whether or not there is a basis for the challenge. If a challenge is unsuccessful, the challenging party may bring this issue to the ordinary court, unless the parties have agreed to another procedure. 4.5 Arbitrator Requirements Pursuant to Section 13 of the Arbitration Act, the arbi - trators are required to be impartial and independent of the parties, and to be qualified for the role as arbitra - tor. As mentioned in 4.1 Limits on Selection , however, this is not a mandatory requirement and the parties are free to agree otherwise. The Arbitration Act does not include a definition of “impartial and independent”. This must be subject to a concrete assessment in the individual case. The Courts of Justice Act applies for all ordinary courts, and Section 108 thereof sets out some provisions regard - ing legal capacity for judges in the ordinary courts, which can provide some guidance for the assess - ment, even though these provisions are not directly
In accordance with Section 13 of the Arbitration Act, there are no limits on the parties’ autonomy to select arbitrators. The parties are free to stipulate specific requirements for the tribunal in the arbitration agree - ment. In accordance with Section 13 (1) of the Arbitration Act, the arbitrators must be impartial and independent from the parties and qualified for the task. However, these are not mandatory requirements and the parties Pursuant to Section 13 of the Arbitration Act, the starting point is that the parties will jointly appoint the arbitrators. If the arbitral tribunal will comprise three arbitrators and the parties fail to agree on the composition of the tribunal, each party will appoint one arbitrator. These two arbitrators will then jointly appoint the third arbi - trator to be the presiding arbitrator. are free to agree otherwise. 4.2 Default Procedures If the arbitral tribunal cannot be established pursuant to the procedure outlined above, each of the parties may request that the ordinary court having jurisdic - tion decides on the appointment(s). The decision on appointment(s) passed by the ordinary court is not subject to any appeal. 4.3 Court Intervention The ordinary court(s) can only intervene in the arbitra - tor selection process if such intervention is requested by one of the parties and authorised pursuant to the Arbitration Act. As stated in 4.2 Default Procedures , in some cases a party may request that the ordinary court appoints the arbitrators. In certain cases, a party may also request that the ordinary court rules on whether there are grounds for requesting an appointed arbitrator to step down from the tribunal due to objections raised; see Section 15, paragraph 2 of the Arbitration Act. In such cases, the decision made by the ordinary court is not subject to appeal.
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