Resumen:
Although arbitration is increasingly being used to settle important disputes, particularly on an international level, little attention has focused on the language used by arbitrators. This article contains a qualitative analysis of the discursive moves and resources used in separate (dissenting and concurring) opinions published on the website of the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes from 1987 to 2013. Arbitrators' discursive practices in this forum are analyzed, with a particular focus on the tensions that arise between the need to sustain the arbitral system and maintain professional relations, on the one hand, and the equally pressing need to display commitment to the losing party's cause, on the other. These tensions have parallels in other areas of legal practice and professional life, and can be understood as part of the way power systems operate and replicate through discourse
