Status: Legal review required — disabled for public filing until approved
Legal seat: New York, New York, United States
Procedural rules: UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules
Substantive law: New York law
Enforcement framework: Federal Arbitration Act
This protocol is the product implementation reference derived from the parties’ New York AI-enabled arbitration agreement. It is not a substitute for an executed arbitration agreement or protocol addendum. A case may use it only after all parties have adopted it on the record.
1. Human tribunal and authority
The tribunal consists of three human arbitrators: one appointed by each side and a chair appointed by the two party-appointed arbitrators. The tribunal alone decides all procedural and substantive issues and signs the final award. AI systems are advisory tools only and may not exercise adjudicative authority.
2. Commencement and accelerated schedule
The schedule runs from receipt of the Notice of Dispute. Calendar-day deadlines that fall on a weekend or applicable legal holiday roll to the next business day.
| Milestone | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Litigation hold implemented | Day 5 |
| Informal negotiation period ends | Day 10 |
| Each party appoints one arbitrator | Day 20 |
| Each party identifies custodians and material data sources | Day 21 |
| Tribunal chair appointed | Earlier applicable requirement, no later than Day 30 |
| ESI protocol completed | Within 10 days after tribunal constitution and no later than Day 40 |
| Evidentiary hearing held | Day 45 |
| AI systems, draft materials and parameters agreed | Day 50 |
| Prompts and draft award submitted for AI review | Within 15 days after agreement and no later than Day 65 |
| Exception Report and System Findings shared with all parties | 2 business days after submission |
| Party comments on the AI review | 5 business days after report |
| Final reasoned award | 10 days after comments close |
The source document contains both Day 5 and Day 10 formulations for the litigation hold. The executable workflow uses Day 5, the earlier and more protective deadline. It also resolves an isolated two-member reference in favor of the repeatedly specified three-member structure.
3. Evidence preservation and ESI
Each party must preserve potentially relevant electronically stored information and suspend ordinary destruction practices. The parties and tribunal must establish custodians, systems, date ranges, search methods, production formats, metadata requirements, privilege handling, and a process for resolving ESI disputes.
4. AI review protocol
Before AI review begins, the parties and tribunal record the approved systems, model versions, prompts, parameters, source materials, draft award versions, output handling, security controls, and confidentiality restrictions. Every AI run must remain reproducible and auditable.
The tribunal may submit draft award material to approved AI systems for issue spotting, consistency review, citation verification, arithmetic checking, or other agreed assistance. The system must preserve the exact input, prompt, model/version, parameters, output, timestamp, operator, and relationship between the output and later human revisions.
5. Exception Report and party comment
The AI review produces an Exception Report and System Findings identifying concerns such as unsupported statements, missing analysis, internal inconsistencies, citation problems, arithmetic errors, or process deviations. The same report is disclosed to every party. Parties receive the stated comment period before the human tribunal finalizes the award.
6. Optional blind review
The tribunal may use narrowly tailored redaction or anonymization for an agreed blind-review step. The unredacted record remains sealed and preserved. Blind review must not conceal material facts necessary for a fair determination or prevent the parties from addressing information considered by the tribunal.
7. Final award
After considering the parties’ comments and the complete record, the human tribunal independently issues a reasoned written award. The award must disclose the agreed use of AI assistance and confirm that the tribunal exercised independent judgment.
8. Internal appeal
A party may request the contractually defined internal appeal within 10 days after receiving the award. The appeal uses a three-arbitrator Appellate Panel.
| Appeal milestone | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Appeal request | 10 days after award receipt |
| Each side appoints one appellate arbitrator | 20 days after appeal |
| Appellate chair | 10 days after the two appellate appointments |
| Opposition | 10 days after appeal |
| Reply | 10 days after opposition |
| Grant/deny review decision | 10 days after reply |
| Hearing, if review is granted | 10 days after grant |
| Ruling | 10 days after hearing |
The internal appeal does not expand judicial review beyond what governing law permits. The final post-appeal award remains subject to the Federal Arbitration Act and applicable enforcement law.
9. Confidentiality, security and audit record
The case record includes the executed adoption instrument, filings, evidence, hearing record, AI logs, Exception Report, party comments, tribunal revisions, final award, appeal submissions, and delivery receipts. Access must follow party/tribunal/Center confidentiality channels. The record must be tamper-evident and retained under the adopted preservation policy.
10. Launch control
This protocol remains in legal-review status. Public filing and automated activation stay disabled until New York arbitration counsel approves the operative text, appeal mechanism, due-process safeguards, privacy/security terms, fee treatment, and compatibility with the selected UNCITRAL rules version.