Artificial Intelligence, Arbitration and the Global South: Addressing Algorithmic Asymmetries in Global Dispute Resolution

Résumé

This article examines whether the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in international arbitration risks reinforcing and expanding Global North dominance over the Global South. While existing literature mainly focuses on efficiency, confidentiality, transparency, and due process in AI-assisted arbitration, this article addresses this gap by viewing AI not just as a technological innovation but as a form of private transnational governance embedded within broader structures of epistemic hierarchy, technological dependency, and Global North–South inequality. Methodologically, it combines doctrinal and literature-based legal analysis with a TWAIL-informed political economy perspective, drawing on scholarly literature, institutional reports, surveys, and soft-law instruments. The analysis highlights three main mechanisms through which inequalities may be reinforced: data concentration, vendor control, and the dominance of Global North standard-setting. It argues that AI may strengthen existing institutional, infrastructural, and normative advantages of actors at the center of the arbitral system. At the same time, the article does not oppose AI in arbitration. Instead, it concludes that AI should be governed with safeguards such as disclosure, explainability, contestability, confidentiality, and human oversight, while also addressing deeper inequalities in technological infrastructure and epistemic authority.