O estatuto dos árbitros na arbitragem administrativa

: a criação de um normativo próprio

Abstract

This dissertation aims at demonstrating that a specific legal regime on administrative law arbitration is needed. Being indisputable that arbitrators play an essential role in the arbitral justice system, our focus will be on their statute, particularly on the requirements for their designation, their rights and obligations, as well as their possible conflicts of interests. The current legal framework on those aspects is scattered throughout several pieces of legislation: mainly, the Voluntary Arbitration Law, with some special rules applying pursuant to the Code of Administrative Court Procedures and, more recently, the Legal Regime for Arbitration on Tax Matters. Taking as a starting point the applicable legal rules on the statute for arbitrators, the question is whether the Voluntary Arbitration Law, with its set of rules originally conceived for commercial arbitration disputes between companies, can appropriately address the specific concerns underlying the resolution of administrative law disputes or, otherwise, leaves important questions unanswered. To that end, we analysed the most recent developments in Portugal, where successive revisions of the Code of Administrative Court Procedures introduced new specific rules on this topic, and where, in 2011, a special regime for tax arbitration was adopted. We also looked into the latest developments at international level, where the question of double hatting has sparked a spirited debate. On that basis, we identified the main existing gaps and difficulties in legal interpretation. The final conclusion is that there are solid grounds for the adoption of a specific legal regime on administrative law arbitration; consequently, we made suggestions on how to best regulate the different aspects covered by the statute for arbitrators, using as a reference a proposal for a legal regime on arbitration in administrative disputes, recently drafted by a working group under the coordination of Tiago Serrão.

Date of Award	20 Jul 2023
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Pedro Cerqueira Gomes (Supervisor)