Modern approaches on the standards of arbitrators\' impartiality and independence.

The present master dissertation is devoted to analysis of current standards for assessing of arbitrators' impartiality and independence in a number of national jurisdictions: Hong Kong, England, Australia, France, Russia, USA and England. First of all, the author focuses on the sources governing the requirements of impartiality and independence of the arbitrator, the limits of the parties' autonomy in their regulation, as well as analyzes the problem of the scope and correlation of these requirements. The author then turns to the national standards for assessing the impartiality and independence of arbitrators, including the " justifiable doubts" standard, the "real danger" test, as well as the "minimal doubt" standard. Throughout the paper, the author examines the practical application of these standards both in arbitration and at the state court level. The final part of the paper analyzes the 2024 revision of the International Bar Association (IBA) Guidelines on Conflict of Interest in International Arbitration. The author concludes that there are conflicting national approaches to assessing the impartiality and independence of arbitrators, even among national jurisdictions that have incorporated the " justifiable doubt" standard of the UNCITRAL Model Law. In this regard, the author points out that unification of approaches may be facilitated by more detailed standards of arbitrators' impartiality and independence in arbitration rules, which national courts will be obliged to take into account due to the party's autonomy, or by greater popularization of the IBA Guidelines application, which may be done through their inclusion in the arbitration rules or through the parties' agreement on their mandatory application.