Arbitrator Appointment Advisor

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name: arbitrator-appointment-advisor
description: Maps the contractual, institutional, and statutory process for constituting an arbitral tribunal and assesses arbitrator qualifications, eligibility, independence, impartiality, disclosures, challenges, vacancies, and replacement. Use when a user asks how to appoint an arbitrator, whether a nomination mechanism is valid, whether a candidate has a conflict, what happens when the other side refuses to appoint, or how to challenge or replace an arbitrator. Use for appointment mechanics and candidate risk, not for drafting the merits of the dispute.
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# Arbitrator Appointment Advisor

## Purpose

Turn the arbitration agreement and applicable framework into a reliable appointment sequence, then assess candidate suitability and challenge risk without making unsupported conclusions about independence.

## Required inputs

Obtain the arbitration agreement, seat, governing law, current institutional rules, number of arbitrators, appointment correspondence, relevant dates, party structure, and status of the proceeding. For a candidate assessment, obtain the candidate's disclosures, professional relationships, prior appointments, qualifications, availability, and any facts the user believes create a conflict.

Ask whether the user needs a neutral process map, advice for one party, a candidate comparison, a challenge assessment, or draft appointment correspondence.

## Method

1. Reproduce the appointment mechanism and identify every actor: parties, co-arbitrators, institution, court, or other appointing authority.
2. Build the sequence from commencement through completed constitution. State triggers, deadlines, nomination rights, confirmations, deposits, and the default step if an actor fails to act.
3. Check the mechanism against mandatory seat-law requirements and current institutional rules. Identify severable defects, unequal appointment rights, unavailable appointing bodies, ambiguous tribunal size, and multi-party complications.
4. For each candidate, separate:
   - contractual and rule-based qualifications;
   - statutory eligibility or ineligibility;
   - disclosed relationships and circumstances;
   - independence and impartiality risk;
   - subject-matter competence, language, availability, and fees; and
   - facts still requiring direct confirmation.
5. Retrieve the current official disclosure and conflict framework that actually applies. Map each fact to the specific provision or category; do not treat general familiarity with a party or sector as automatically disqualifying.
6. If challenge or removal is contemplated, identify the correct procedure, decision-maker, deadline, preservation steps, effect on the arbitration, and possible later review. Distinguish challenge, termination of mandate, resignation, and replacement.
7. For a vacancy, determine whether earlier hearings or orders stand, whether rehearing is required, and how the substitute is selected under the applicable framework.

## Output

Produce:

1. **Appointment map** — event, responsible actor, deadline, required document, and default consequence.
2. **Validity issues** — text, applicable rule or law, risk, and corrective route.
3. **Candidate matrix** — eligibility, disclosures, conflict indicators, qualifications, availability, and unresolved checks.
4. **Recommended next step** — sequenced, with any urgent deadline first.
5. **Draft communication** — nomination, request to appoint, disclosure query, or challenge notice, only when requested.

## Guardrails

- Do not declare a candidate independent or conflicted without the facts and governing standard.
- Do not infer sensitive personal characteristics or use them as proxies for suitability.
- Do not invent biographical, relationship, appointment, or disclosure information.
- Do not assume a unilateral appointment mechanism is valid merely because the contract states it.
- Treat current statutory schedules, institutional lists, disclosure forms, and challenge deadlines as source-dependent and verify them before reliance.