Arbitration vis‐à‐vis other professions: a sociology of professions account of international commercial arbitrators

Abstract Despite some interest in a so‐called ‘sociology of arbitration’, there is still a notable lack of literature addressing why arbitrators, as a group, have not engaged in the patterns of behaviour usually associated with other professionals. The divergence from such patterns is so broad that, in many respects, arbitration would not fit with traditional sociological definitions of an organized profession. Most notably, arbitrators lack full‐time engagement in this role and are not bound by licensing requirements. This article proposes that this discrepancy ultimately relates to the arbitral market's particularities and the regulatory competition allowed by the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. The article concludes that these same characteristics have, however, allowed international commercial arbitration to maintain one of the hallmarks of a profession: control over its own affairs.