Arbitrator Intelligence, a non-profit organization founded by Penn State law professors, has a chance at being named one of the most innovative legal organizations in the world.
The non-profit organization has been chosen as a semifinalist in the 2015 Innovating Justice Challenge, which carries a prize of other $20,000 to take their commitment to transparency in international arbitration to the next level.
The public is invited to participate in the online vote for the annual competition—organized by the Hague Institute for the Internationalization of Law (HiiL) —that awards the best legal innovations worldwide. Voting for Arbitrator Intelligence could help make them one of the three organizations able to move onto the next round, giving them a shot at the €20,000 prize.
Arbitrator Intelligence’s panel of founding members is run by Penn State Law professor Catherine Rogers and includes Penn State professors Scott Gartner, C. Lee Giles and Christopher Zorn, as well as Penn State Law alumnus and postgraduate fellow Alexander Wiker and University of Kansas School of Law professor Christopher R. Drahozal. Created last year, the goal of Arbitrator Intelligence is to increase easy access to crucial information in the arbitrator selection process.
“The idea behind Arbitrator Intelligence is to use contemporary ways to make the arbitration process more transparent,” said Christopher Zorn. “One of the ways we do that is by having an open web-based database that allows people to find information about arbitrators that they need to know, including biographic information and how an arbitrator tends to rule in an argument.”
The organization aims to provide reliable and relevant information about arbitrators in order to make the selection process fair, as well as create an equal opportunity for new and diverse arbitrators, said Zorn. Smaller countries or parties involved in international arbitration who are not massively wealthy have traditionally been at a disadvantage, but the Arbitrator Intelligence database is aimed at creating more equal footing.
This database is the proposal that Arbitrator Intelligence submitted for the Innovative Justice Challenge, which was chosen as one of 60 semifinalists out of 250 submissions.
The three organizations with the most votes, along with three wildcard organizations chosen by HiiL, will advance to the next round and have the opportunity to present their innovations at the Peace Palace in the Hague Institute in the Netherlands.
“Because we are a non-profit organization, we don’t have the amount of funding we need to do everything we want to do,” said Catherine Rogers. “What’s special about this competition is that if we get enough votes to go to the next round, we get to present the database to prestigious group that supports justice innovation.”
At the institute will be big companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft that provide both the support and financial funding needed for the non-profit organization, said Rogers.
Voting for the competition is open until September 17 and can be done at https://bit.ly/arbintel.
