Transnational Construction Arbitration
Page 48
CHAPTER 5
Arbitration and the expanding circle of consenting parties: joinder of additional parties and consolidation of related claims
Arbitration and the expanding circle of consenting parties: joinder of additional parties and consolidation of related claims
Introduction
The voluntary principle (need for party consent)
5.1
The basic proposition (hereafter the voluntary principle) is that arbitral tribunals cannot require joinder of additional parties (including use of the procedural mechanism of representation, see paragraphs 5.45 to 5.48 of this chapter), or consolidation of related arbitration references, unless all parties (subsisting and prospective) consent.1 Such consent can be given either immediately before the relevant procedural variation or much earlier, notably by agreeing to institutional rules which permit this.2