Arbitration Across Human Faculties and Human Societies: A Three-Dimensional Epistemological Analysis

Summary

This chapter applies a tripartite framework of mind, heart and soul, adapted from Xingzhong Yu’s account of the sociological dimensions of law, to examine how differing conceptions of rationality, morality and spirituality shape the practice of international arbitration. It argues that these three faculties are complementary rather than competing bases of legitimacy, and that together they explain divergent expectations across legal traditions as to the role of the arbitrator, the meaning of justice, the value of settlement and the assessment of outcomes. Arbitration built predominantly on rationalist, rule-based reasoning, the chapter suggests, can overlook the moral and even spiritual registers through which many parties and societies understand fairness. Foregrounding these implicit dimensions offers a three-dimensional lens for understanding cross-cultural variation in arbitral practice and for making arbitration more responsive to the societies it serves.