The increase of international commercial disputes has resulted in setting up special courts for dealing with those cases, but the outcome has not reached to the level of full satisfaction. Given that the complexity of those cases and nationality of pa...
The increase of international commercial disputes has resulted in setting up special courts for dealing with those cases, but the outcome has not reached to the level of full satisfaction. Given that the complexity of those cases and nationality of parties in dispute, it seems that those parties tend to lean on the decision by the arbitrator chosen by themselves rather than the decision by the courts. Our government struggles to cultivate our country as an attractive international arbitration center to resolve the international business disputes especially in Asia. In order to do that, the fairness of arbitration process should be inevitable. While the duty of independence and fairness of arbitrator has been studied a lot, the qualifications of council in arbitration have rarely considered. While Article 87 of the Civil Procedure Act stipulates that “Except for representatives entitled to conduct the judiciary acts pursuant to Acts, no person may become an attorney, other than the lawyers.”, there’s no article regarding the qualifications of council in arbitration in the Arbitration Act. According to Article 8 of the Domestic Arbitration Rules of Korean Commercial Arbitration Board(hereinafter referred to as “KCAB”) and Article 7 of the International Arbitration Rules, anybody can be represented for the parties in disputes in arbitration process. Meanwhile, it seems that section 1 of Article 109 of the Attorney at Law Act permits only lawyers to be council in arbitration. Therefore, there might be conflict between the Attorney at Law Act and the Arbitration Rules of KCAB. This paper examined the court rulings and arbitration rules of major international arbitration institutions such as those of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, the Japan Commercial Arbitration Association, and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre. As a result, it seems more reasonable to view that only Korean lawyers can be represented by the parties in the arbitration according to section 1 of Article 109 of the Attorney at Law Act on the grounds that section 1 of Article 109 of the Attorney at Law Act is a compulsory provision and the legal affairs have been deemed for public interest. In this sense, party autonomy of appointing non-lawyer as counsel in arbitration should be limited within the compliance of the mandatory provision of the Attorney at Law Act. Therefore, it seems to be desirable that for the purpose of legalization of non-lawyer council in arbitration, (i) Article 109 of the Attorney at Law Act should be modified to be compatible with Article 8 of the Domestic Arbitration Rules of KCAB and Article 7 of the International Arbitration Rules of KCAB, or (ii) the Arbitration Act have to be modified in order to reflect the intent of Article 8 of the Domestic Arbitration Rules of KCAB and Article 7 of the International Arbitration Rules of KCAB.