Challenging Arbitral Awards in the Construction Industry

Abstract

One of the most common alternative dispute resolution methods used in the Sri Lankan construction industry is arbitration. However, challenging arbitration awards based on legal grounds at the courts has been a current trend by the disagreeing party. If this situation occurs continuously, the purpose of having arbitration as an alternative dispute resolution method can be abandoned. Therefore, the study aims to identify the causes where arbitration is challenged in multi-story building construction projects in Sri Lanka through a case study. The methodological choice was qualitative and used semistructured interviews from six arbitrators and 2 case studies that referred to courts to challenge arbitration awards as research strategies. The study found the poor attitude of parties, lack of technical knowledge, reliability, and capability of the arbitrator to act according to the arbitrary acts imposed by the government as the main causes. Further. The study recommends arbitrators consider the reasons to act well enough and reject the cases if the arbitration is likely to be challenged in courts, train arbitrators to be reliable and on technical knowledge, and improve parties' attitudes by educating on the arbitration procedure and its benefits.