The Qualifications of Arbitral Tribunal: Perspectives of Shariah Law and UNCITRAL Model Law

Arbitration is an alternative mechanism which can be adopted by the parties involved in any legal issues other than the court. Arbitral tribunal plays essential role and has roles and functions similar to the court judges. Only qualified person is eligible to be appointed as arbitrator. From Islamic perspective, the Muslim jurists have laid down several requirements to be fulfilled by such person before the appointment has been made. The UNCITRAL Model Law which is internationally adopted by most of the countries in the world in setting up their arbitration institution also has a provision pertaining to the qualifications of arbitral tribunal. The question arises, what are the qualifications required under Shariah law and prescribed by UNCITRAL Model Law? Is there any similarities? Based on such research questions, this article seeks to analyse the qualifications of the arbitral tribunal from the perspectives of Shariah law and UNCITRAL Model Law. Based on the library data, content analysis method is adopted to compare the qualifications of arbitral tribunal from both perspective. This study found that, the Shariah law and UNCITRAL Model Law have its own requirements for the person to be appointed as arbitrator. The study also found that, Shariah law provides more details in this regard compared to UNCITRAL Model Law which provides only the general principles.