§ 9-9-32.Appointment of arbitrators; immunity from liability

This is the workhorse section for getting a tribunal seated. Subsection (a) starts with a nondiscrimination rule — nobody can be kept off a tribunal because of their nationality unless the parties themselves agreed to limit it. Subsections (b) and (c) then lay out how appointment happens: the parties are free to agree on their own procedure, and if they have not, the Code supplies one. For a three-arbitrator tribunal, each side appoints one arbitrator and those two pick the third; miss the 30-day windows for either step, and the court steps in on request. For a sole arbitrator, the parties get 30 days to agree before the court appoints instead.

Subsection (d) covers the appointment procedures parties design for themselves — if a party will not act, if the parties or two arbitrators cannot agree, or if a third party like an institution will not perform its role, any party can ask the court to step in, unless the agreement already provides its own fix. Subsection (e) makes the court’s appointment decision final — no appeal — and tells the court what to weigh: the qualifications the parties required, the independence and impartiality of the candidate, and, for a sole or third arbitrator, whether appointing someone of a different nationality than the parties would serve the case.

Subsections (f) and (g) close with an immunity shield. Arbitrators are not liable for what they do or fail to do in carrying out their duties unless it was done in bad faith, and they are not liable for honest mistakes of law, fact, or procedure. That protection extends to an arbitrator’s staff or agents and to the institutions and people who help appoint arbitrators or run the arbitration’s administrative side.