Arbitration and the Rule of Law: Fashionable or Old-Fashioned?

It has become standard practice to deplore the weakening of the rule of law. This article, based on a recent keynote address, provides an extensive overview of the impact of this weakening on arbitration. It argues that the absence of the rule of law is not confined to autocratic regime and aspiring autocracies that disdain a rules-based international order and arbitration; it is also a systemic and worrying aspect of EU institutions, including the European Court of Justice. The article calls on practitioners to take a principled stance, to stand up for the rule of law, and to avoid becoming servants of rule by law.